


Pins and Needles

by scarlett57



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-24
Updated: 2014-07-13
Packaged: 2017-12-24 12:47:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 37,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/940179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scarlett57/pseuds/scarlett57
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I, Andromeda Larsen, hear by swear that all the events in this story really happened. And to answer some questions before they arise: yes, I did hit the famous Harry Styles in the head with a door. No I did not intend for it to happen. And yes, of course it changed my life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A lack of signage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Andromeda hits Harry with a door, and manages to make a complete fool of herself.

### Chapter 1: A lack of signage

##### Andromeda

Alexis, Jane and I walk into the concert hall where there are fifty thousands of teenage and preteen girls here to see a boy band named One Direction. Alexis had gotten three tickets, so Jane had dragged me along for moral support.

"Alexis, if I get trampled by hormonal teenage girls at any time during the night you are so paying the medical bills," I say as I dodge a couple of girls who are completely fangirling and are probably going to maim someone if they keep jumping around like that.

Alexis grins and laughs a little, "yeah, that might be me in a little bit."

"Great. Warn me when it happens so I can get out of your way," I joke.

Jane winks at me and pokes me in the side; "don't pretend that wouldn't be you if this were a Logan Lerman event."

"True. But he doesn't have concerts," I pause for a second, thinking about the possibilities of that. "But dang, if he did he could make a fortune just sitting there talking."

Alexis does this weird dance and grins, "Oh my god, Logan, Lerman, is, so, hot, I, could, cry."

I smile at here suspiciously, "How many celebrity crushes do you have?"

She blushes and grins sheepishly, "like a million."

"Wow."

Jane rolls her eyes at us, "Can we focus on One Direction while we're here?"

"Hey!" I say indignant, "You brought it up."

"True, but I didn't think it'd go on this long," she smiles at me and waggles her eyebrows.

I scowl at the ground but can't help smiling, "Thanks sis."

She smiles, "anytime."

Alexis goes back into fangirl mode, "Oh my god, this is the best thing ever! We're going to see them! We're going to know they're real people!"

"Of course they're real people. It isn't like they're robots or anything," I roll my eyes at her.

She protests, "but it's like how no place seems really real to you until you see it yourself. Same concept with them! And we're going to see them!"

I shrug, "I guess. I never really had that feeling with places either though. That what happens when you travel to Italy at the age of two."

Jane rolls her eyes again, "oh, rough life." She says sarcastically.

I grin, choosing to ignore her sarcasm, "I love it! But I don't understand how all of this," I gesture to the screaming girls, "doesn't drive them crazy." I pause for a minute then smile wryly. "And this is why I don't want to be famous."

Jane shrugs, "they seem to endure it well. And they don't seem like jerks either so there's that."

"That's because they aren't jerks! They're the sweetest nicest guys ever and they're cute and damn Liam is hot and I just wanna cry every time I look at him!" she looks like she's going to hyperventilating.

"Breath Alexis, breathe," I say concerned.

Now she really is hyperventilating, "and then there's Harry and Zayn and Niall and Louis and they're all perfect too and I want to die they're so hot."

She's starting to scare me, "Alexis, please don't die. Breathe. Come on. If you want to see them you have to survive until the concert and to do that you have to not hyperventilate and end up in the hospital."

That gets her to stop, "ew, no, I can't go to the hospital but seriously how do I look? That's like my biggest fear, seeing them and not looking good."

Jane just rolls her eyes so I say, "you look amazing. Trust me."

"No I don't," Alexis protests but she grins anyway, mollified.

I dodge another clump of girls that look to be rushing for the merch table. Somehow they always miss Alexis and Jane but not me. "Hey can we find our seats before I get trampled?" I ask.

Alexis freaks out again, honestly it's like she's constantly on the edge of freak out mode, "yes, yes, yes! They're right by the second stage where they do twitter questions so we get to see them up close! Come on don't just stand there! Lets go!" she shoves us and then runs off in front.

"Sorry I mentioned it," I mutter to Jane.

She grins, "you didn't really think that anything you said could calm her down, did you?"

I shake my head, "I wasn't trying to calm her down. I was trying not to get killed in this crowd."

"And it just might work! Actually screw that, the twitter stage is probably going to get mobbed sooner or later," she makes a face.

I do the same and mumble, "brilliant."

Alexis lets us put our stuff down by our seats and sit down. She pulls out her camera and starts taking pictures of everything in sight: the stage, the crowd, the banners, us, the seats, I even thinks she takes a picture of the floor, but that might have been by accident.

"Now we go to the merch table!" she squeals, grabbing our hands and dragging us up. Dutifully I follow, wondering if five boys are really worth this much trouble.

Alexis continues to squeal over everything at the table, bugging Jane about her crush on Niall. At some point Jane tries to bug me about Harry, but I remind her that I'm over that crush now, have been for a while. It was just for a summer.

I think Alexis ends up buying over fifty dollars of One Direction merchandise, Jane buys a Niall bracelet. But neither of them can make me buy anything. None of the things have just song lyrics on them, and that's all I would consider buying.

Finally we go back to our seats, just before the opening band is about to go on. Most of the girls have sat down and are fangirling in their seats, just as Alexis is doing now.

I turn to Jane, "hey, I'm going to go find a bathroom. Be back in a minute."

She nods, "okay."

I get up and walk out of the theatre. There is no one around and the signage in this building sucks. I'm going to have to tell my mom to contact this place for a project for the graphic design students. Eventually I pick a direction and walk around until I find a door that looks relatively like a bathroom. I thought I saw a line of girls around her somewhere earlier.

Tentatively I open the door on the right. When no one yells at me, I push it fully open. Bang. I must have hit something, or more likely someone with the door.

"Sorry," I say quickly.

"Ow," a male voice says.

My eyes widen, I must have gotten the wrong door. "Gosh, I'm so sorry. I was just looking for the girls' bathroom."

A boy in his early twenties with a whole lot of curly hair comes out from behind the door, hand on his head. "I'm pretty sure this isn't it."

I nod, horrified. "Are you okay? I didn't mean to hit you. I'm sorry. Does it hurt a lot?"

He smiles at me, making my heart stop and then go into overdrive, "It's fine, trust me. I've had worse."

A giant man comes up from behind the boy, "Harry, is everything okay? Would you like me to escort this girl from the premises?"

I look from the man to Harry and then it dawns on me just who I hit in the head with the door. My face turns beet red.

"No, it's fine. Thank you." Harry smiles at the man. He turns back to me and sees the blush all over my face. "You okay?"

"I'm about as embarrassed as you can get, but apart from that I'm good," my sarcasm kicks in.

"I told you, it's fine. It doesn't even hurt anymore," Harry assures me.

I shake my head, "But it was while I was looking for the bathroom. Though technically that's not my fault because the signage in this building sucks. It's worse than when I was in Germany and they didn't have those little stick figures that let you know which one they are and they just had the words in German. I don't read German and I was so terrified of going in the wrong one, cause those words look nothing like English or Spanish." I think of something else and my eyes widen, "This isn't the men's room right? Cause that would be even worse."

He laughs, not grossed out at all by me, "No, it's backstage. Normally they have a sign but as you pointed out they need to fix that."

I nod, "It's really going to start being a problem. I mean I can't be the only one that this has happened to. Not hitting you in the head with a door," I amend quickly, turning even redder. "I meant not being able to find the bathroom."

He smiles even bigger, "I'm not sure I've ever been hit by a pretty girl looking for the bathroom."

"I'm not that pretty, that's Alexis. She's the one that made us come here. Me and my friend Jane that is," I inform him.

"Well, I've never met her so I can't argue, but you are pretty. What's your name?" He says, before I can argue further.

"Andromeda," I stutter. "Andromeda Larsen."

He holds out his arms to hug me, and not knowing what else to do, I hug him back. I feel this spark between us when we touch but I step back before I can find out if he felt it too.

"Err, you don't possibly know where the actual bathroom is?" I ask, looking down at the floor.

He shakes his head, "no, but I'm sure Paul does."

Paul, the name of the big man that is probably one of the bodyguards, walks up to us, having heard his name. "Yes?"

Harry looks at him, "Do you know where the girl's restroom is for Ms. Larsen?"

"Of course," He says. "Come with me ma'am."

I turn to Harry before I leave, "I hope your head is okay."

He rolls his eyes and grins at me, "It'll be fine."

In a bit of a daze I follow Paul out and he shows me the bathroom. Only one door over. Evidently the boy's room is on the other side of the hall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is my first fan fiction that I've felt is good enough to post online.  
> I hope you enjoy it!  
> Please comment and tell me what you liked, what I could do better, and anything else.  
> Thanks :)


	2. Highly Embarrassed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Andromeda's friends learn how she embarrassed herself, but it might not have been as bad as she thought.

### Chapter 2: Highly embarrassed

##### Andromeda

After a bit I wander back to our seats. The opening band has started playing, and Jane is looking around, probably wondering where the heck I wandered off to.

I slide into the seat next to Jane.

She looks at me and frowns, “everything okay? Did you get lost?”

I blink and then say almost in one breath, “a bit. I missed the bathroom by one door, managed to hit Harry Styles in the head with the door, blabbed to him about bathrooms and doors and being sorry and then came back with my pride utterly shattered.

Alexis whips her head around really fast and leans her head around Jane to look at me, “ _What? What? How the hell did that happen?_ ” she screams.

Jane is just gaping at me in shock, with her eyes as big as saucers.

My face is starting to turn red again, “the signage sucks in this building.”

Alexis continues to scream, “ _you are telling us ABSOLUTELY everything right now or so help me I will go into cardiac arrest!!_ ” She’s getting louder and most of the girls in our vicinity are looking at us. Luckily the band on stage hasn’t noticed the disturbance yet.

“Calm down. I don’t want to cause a scene. Everyone is already looking,” Alexis doesn’t look like she is going to calm down any time soon. “I’ll only tell you if you promise to be absolutely silent.”

If looks could kill I’d be a puddle of goo right now from the laser beams shooting out of Alexis’s eyes, “ _Are you fu-“_

Jane jabs her in the ribs before she can finish, “Alexis, there are little girls here! And I wanna know what happened!”

So, during the songs of the opening band I tell them everything that happened. I kinda feel bad for the opening band because I’m talking during their songs, but if I don’t I’m pretty sure even Jane won’t be able to stop Alexis from torturing the story out of me in front of everyone.

When I finish, both Alexis and Jane are gawking at me in complete stupefied shock. I give them a minute to recover but when they don’t I start to get concerned. “Are you two okay? Remember I was the one who just hit a celebrity in the head with a door.” The image of Harry coming on stage with a cartoon size welt on his head distracts me momentarily and I grimace, “I hope he doesn’t come on stage with a big welt.”

They continue to gawk, and it finally begins to dawn on me exactly what I’ve done. Apart from hit a guy with a door that is. “Oh my god. I just make a compete fool of myself in front of Harry Styles,” I moan and put my head in my hands. “Please kill me now.”

Jane still seems unable to say anything but she reaches over to me and puts an arm around my shoulder, hugging me reassuringly.

Alexis is making these weird gargling noises that remind me a bit of a baby.

“Shit,” I continue to moan.

“It’ll be okay dear, promise,” Jane says, though she is still completely floored by what happened to me. Have I mentioned she is the best friend in the world? She’s the only person who would comfort me in complete shock.

I shake my head; “I just made a fool out of myself in every way possible. Oh God,” I moan.

Jane pats my hair, “it couldn’t have been that bad. Harry Styles manages to make a fool out of himself all the time.

Alexis has now moved past baby sounds to strangling noise. Normally I would be alarmed, but I’m to absorbed in my own embarrassing problems to care.

“I talked about bathrooms! It would have been bad if it was just a normal boy,” I pause for emphasis, “but it was Harry Styles! He’s probably telling everyone how stupid I am right now.” I’m back to moaning.

“Are you kidding? He’s done far worse than that! You have absolutely nothing to worry about,” Jane says, squeezing my shoulder.

“ _Bathrooms?! You meet Harry fucking Styles and all you can talk about is bathrooms?!?!_ ” Alexis screeches, obviously having gotten her voice back.

I moan, “You know I was starting to feel okay. But I’m back to shit. Thanks Alexis,” I try to glare at her but fail miserably, looking instead like I’m about to cry.

Jane, the angel she is, rolls her eyes, “Please, Andi. If Alexis had met Liam the way you just met Harry she wouldn’t have been able to shut up about bathrooms.” She shoots Alexis a warning look.

Alexis mumbles, “sorry… but seriously bathrooms?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t exactly plan it that way. It was what was on the fore front of my mind at the time,” I look at her apologetically.

“Even with _Harry motherfucking Styles,_ the god of curly headed perfection, standing right in front of you, all you had in the front of your mind was bathrooms? How did he not completely distract you?!” Alexis sounds dumbfounded.

I switch from moaning to blurting random facts that no one wants to know. “Alexis, when you are completely embarrassed and nervous in front of someone you say the first thing in your head. And for me that happens to be whatever random fact I find most prevalent to the situation. In that case it was about how the words in German look nothing like ours and it sucks when you’re trying to find a bathroom without the little stick people to guide you because you don’t want to walk into the wrong one.” I squeeze my eyes shut, “Okay. I’m still in that mode. Can I go home now?” I look pleadingly at Jane sounding like a five-year-old child.

She grins at me and winks. “No dear. We have to check and see if you’ve given the one and only Harry Styles a welt on his forehead,” she says, waggling her eyebrows.

Despite my embarrassment I still laugh a little, “I love you sis.” I say as I hug her.

“Love you too dear,” she says back.

Alexis grumbles next to Jane, “I still can’t believe you even got to meet him at all… fucking lucky.”

I look at her completely serious, “Next time I’ll drag you with me and we can talk about bathrooms together.” I start to laugh a bit, realizing just how funny this whole situation is, now that I’m distanced a bit from it.

Alexis laughs too, “Sorry I made you feel bad.” She shakes her head, “Bathrooms.”

“God, I’m never going to be able to hear that word without turning bright red and laughing,” I mutter.

Jane chuckles evilly and waggles her eyebrows again. Obviously she’s planning on never letting me live this down.

I crack up, and soon all three of us are laughing, right up until the point that the guys from the opening band say their goodbyes and everyone waits in anticipation for One Direction to come on stage. Well, everyone but me, who is secretly dreading the moment incase Harry Styles does come on stage with a welt.

The curtain opens and suddenly I can’t hear myself think through all the girls screaming. Through the jumping girls I can see the five boys smiling and waving at all of us in the audience. I look closer at Harry and see, thank God, that he doesn’t have a welt, or even a red mark that is visible. Thank that curly hair of his.

I collapse on my seat in relief. Jane looks down at me concerned and I shout into her ear, “He doesn’t have a welt!”

She grins and nods, then turns back to the stage.

By the time intermission rolls around I’m pretty sure Alexis has screamed herself horse. Half the girls in the audience probably have. The boys have played about five to ten songs and have talked in between them. The rest of the boys seem just as nice as Harry, though I still don’t know how they handle all the attention.

The second they get off stage Alexis turns to us, “Let’s go, we have to get to the twitter stage.”

She drags Jane and me up to the very front. We’re actually right next to the stage, so I’ll be able to see them. And more importantly they’ll be able to see me.

I don’t really pay attention to the questions that they answer, I mean I hear what they’re saying and I store it away for possible use later. But I have something else on my mind. Or more accurately someone.

I’m trying to watch Harry as inconspicuously as possible. A couple of times I catch him looking at me, probably thinking that I’m the biggest idiot in the world.

“Okay everyone,” Harry says smiling at all of us. “I’d like to announce the winners for the backstage passes today. They are Ms. Andromeda Larsen and her friends Jane and Alexis from row E seats 4, 5, and 6.” He walks over to where the three of us are standing and kneels down. In turn he gives us high fives, then stands up and walks back to the middle. “We’ll see you ladies after the show.” And I could have sworn he winked at me.

Currently my face is redder than a sunburnt tomato. Jane is grinning like she has just won the biggest prize on earth, her eyes completely focused on Niall Horan.

I put my arm around Alexis who is so happy that she is actually sobbing with joy. She turns and hugs all of the air out of me. “Thank you.”

“For what?” I ask, thoroughly confused. We all put our names on a piece of paper, along with the people we wanted to bring with us, up to three. I just got lucky.

Jane rolls her eyes, “Jesus Andi, we’re going back there because of you.”

“Me? Why would he want to see me again?” I look from her to Alexis.

Jane smiles, “I’m sure you’re going to find out.”


	3. Backstage passes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Andromeda and her friends meet the boys backstage.

### Chapter 3: Backstage passes

##### Andromeda

The rest of the concert is a bit of a blur. I’m so stunned by all the events of tonight that I don’t really register much apart from the singing. All three of us are jumping around, singing at the top of our lungs to the different songs.

They finish with their first big hit, “What Makes You Beautiful” which I knew even before I liked their music because it had been played on the radio so much. The girls continue to scream long after the boys leave the stage.

“Where do we go?” I ask Jane over the noise.

She shrugs and turns to Alexis, who is the most likely one to know the answer to that question.

“The backstage door I think. Not the one that you used though,” she smiles wryly at me. “The one that’s marked. But we could go up to the front of the stage to check.”

We do just that, the two of them falling behind me. I guess they figured I should lead as I technically the one that won. There is another large man standing at the edge of the stage. He has a short buzz cut of brown hair, and is talking to some fangirling teenage girls.

“I’m sorry. Only the backstage winners can come backstage,” he tells them. They walk away pouting.

Terrified I walk up to him, “Sir?”

He turns and looks at me, “What can I help you with?”

“Um, I’m the backstage winner. Andromeda Larsen,” I tell him, trying not to stutter too much.

He raises his eyebrows, “You fit the description at least. Can I see your tickets?”

Nodding I pull out all three of our tickets from my back pocket, almost pulling my phone out in the process. “Here.”

Taking them out of my hand he studies them for a few minutes. Just when I’m sure that we’re going to be thrown out of the theatre on our butts, he give me a terse smile, “Right this way miss. We’re going to have you fill out some paperwork. These girls are the correct ones?”

I turn back to Jane and Alexis, “positive.” I smile at the two of them. Alexis looks absolutely stunned that we’re getting to do this.

“Follow me then,” he walks around the stage and to a small door at the left side of the theatre. Behind the door is a small room that is very brightly lit; there are several big men and one brisk looking woman.

She approaches us, “Which of you is Andromeda Larsen?”

I smile at her, “I’m Andromeda. Do we have lots of paper work to fill out?”

She hands me a stack of papers, and then does the same to Jane and Alexis. “When you are done with these you may go backstage.”

I start filling out my form and then stop when I get to the space that is asking for my social security number. Forgetting I’m not in school I raise my hand.

“Miss?” the man next to me asks. He’s younger than the others I’ve seen, just a bit older than I am.

"Do I have to give my social security number?” I ask him.

Alexis looks up from her paper, “How are you already there?”

“I write fast,” I shrug and then turn back to look at the man.

He looks down at my paper and then up at the rest of them, “No, you do not have to fill that part out if you don’t want to. You only have to do the stared items.”

I smile at him, “Thank you.”

As normal I’m done first, Jane and Alexis following suit about a minute later. Wordlessly they hand the forms to the woman. Neither of them have said anything to the people, they haven’t had to.

We get ushered into a hall. At the end of it is a door that I suspect the band is behind. Alexis starts to freak out.

“Oh god! I can’t meet them like this!” she starts to hyperventilate again.

Jane starts to comfort her, but I get there first, “If I have to go in there after hitting Harry Styles with a door, you do too.”

Alexis looks at me, and then slowly starts to smile, “I guess that’s a deal.”

“In we go then,” I say, and bravely push open the door. The five boys are all sitting in different postures on the couches and chairs. Harry gets up and smiles at me.

“Hi Andromeda,” he grins, and without any preamble pulls me into a hug. Awkwardly I pat him on the back. When he lets go he looks at Alexis and Jane behind me.

The other boys are all standing up now too, looking at the three of us new comers with smiles on their faces. They are either as nice as they seem, or extremely polite, or both.

“Now which one of you is Alexis and which is Jane?” Harry says.

I look behind me and see that both girls are completely speechless for the moment. Rolling my eyes I supply the answers, “This is Jane Jackson,” I point to my best friend. “And this is Alexis Barshaw.” I’m about to say more, but I mentally slap my hand over my mouth. No more talking than absolutely necessary. I’m not going to go rambling about who knows what again.

We hug each of the boys in turn. I think Jane might be in heaven when Niall hugs her, and Alexis seems that way for all of them, but especially for Liam.

I’m the first to sit down, taking the only armchair in the room and curling up in a ball on it. Alexis and Jane sit next to each other on the couch, Niall sitting next to Jane. I wink at her, and she grins. Louis, Zayn and Liam sit on the floor in a slight semi-circle so they can see everyone. Harry smiles at me and sits down on the armrest of my chair.

"You don’t have to be scared, we won’t bite,” Louis says to me.

I cock my head, “I’m not scared.”

Harry laughs, “well you are curled up in the fetal position.”

I look at Jane for help, I didn’t want to explain it and then start rambling again. She takes pity on me, “She sits like that all the time.”

“Really?” Louis asks.

I nod, not saying anything.

We sit for a couple seconds before Liam asks, “so where are you all from?”

“Cincinnati, Ohio” Jane says, smiling.

Alexis looks like she’s in a bit of a daze but she snaps out of it when Jane elbows her, “South Lyon, Michigan.”

“Same as Jane,” I mumble, for someone who was just a moment ago taking the lead, I’m remarkably quiet.

“And how old are you?” Liam says, trying to get someone to talk.

“Andromeda and I just finished our first year of college,” Alexis says, thank God she used the name I told them, I didn’t want to have to explain my nicknames to them. “And Jane finished her second.”

“Really? What are you majoring in?” Niall asks, looking at Jane.

“English,” Jane says blushing slightly.

“What do you want to do with it?” Zayn asks, he’s nicer than I thought he would be originally.

“I want to be a writer,” she grins.

“You any good?” Harry asks from his perch on the armrest.

Alexis doesn’t let her write herself off, “She’s amazing. She posts her stuff online all the time, and people love it.”

Jane blushes, “it’s not that good.”

Niall puts his arm around her shoulder, “We’ll have to check it out and see for ourselves.”

She looks like all her dreams just came true, which in truth, some of them probably did. The boys can probably tell they aren’t going to get much out of her until she calms down a bit so they move onto Alexis.

“And you?” Liam asks her.

She shrugs, “Undecided. I just took most of the basic courses everyone has to take last year. Jane thinks I should do communications but I’m still not sure.”

“That’s cool.” Liam says. “Where do you go?”

“Jane and I both go to CMU,” Alexis says, forgetting that they probably don’t know the acronyms around here.

“Central Michigan,” Jane supplies, sensing the confusion from the boys.

“And where do you go Andromeda?” Harry asks me, looking down.

“Miami, in Oxford,” I say, trying to keep my sentences to a minimum and not talk too much.

Unfortunately Harry won’t let me do that. “And what are you majoring in?”

“Physics, with a double minor in Creative Writing and Psychology,” I say, looking back up at him.

His eyebrows disappear into his hair, “that’s an awful lot of work isn’t it.”

I can’t help but smile, “It is, but I’m taking summer school so I can not completely freak myself out. As much as I love school I want to be able to do something other than study.”

Louis rolls his eyes at me, “because studying over the summer is so doing something other than studying.”

I stick my tongue out at him, momentarily forgetting I’m not supposed to make a fool of myself.

“Why all the different areas?” Liam asks, looking at me with curiosity. I guess most of their fans don’t do school for their lives.

“I just couldn’t pick one. Physics is my major ‘cause I want to be an Astrophysics professor. That just always sounded like so much fun to me. Creative Writing because like Jane I want to be a writer,” I glance at my best friend and grin, “though I’m not nearly as good as she is. And Psychology because I’m fascinated by how people’s genes and environment form and create them.” I shrug, finishing off with; “I guess I’m just too curious for my own good.”

“Curiosity killed the cat,” Louis says grinning at me.

I smile, “but how?”

He grins, “Because it wanted to know what was at the bottom of the cliff.”

I crack up. That response endeared me to Louis, not only because he actually answered the question but because of how he answered it.

“Way to be morbid Lou,” Liam says, rolling his eyes.

We move on to talking about our hobbies. The boys get Alexis talking about swimming and I’m perfectly happy to sit back and let her talk. I don’t want to make a fool out of myself anyway, and I have a hard enough time keeping my mouth shut as it is.

“So, what do you write?” Niall asks Jane, well mainly Jane, he hasn’t been able to keep his eyes off her all night. It’s adorable actually. But I assume the question is directed at me too.

Jane glances at me, probably not willing to tell them that she writes fanfic mostly, at least not yet.

I roll my eyes and take the question for her, “Fantasy, and a bit of fiction, but mainly fantasy.”

“And you dear?” Niall says to Jane. I think she almost faints at that, but she manages to answer the question.

“Realistic fiction, but mostly fan fiction.”

“Whose fan fiction?” Zayn asks, he is a bit vain because you can tell that he wants her to say theirs.

“Some other people, but mainly yours,” she replies. I smile at her, and she rolls her eyes.

They all pepper her with questions about it, and she answers them with relative ease. Niall promises that he will guarantee that all of the boys read them and comment on them as well.

While the rest of the band is talking to Jane, Harry leans down and whispers, “Do you write any fanfic?”

I try my hardest not to blush, “like I would tell you that.”

“C’mon,” he whines, leaning even further over till I’m afraid that he’s going to fall on top of me.

“I used to, not anymore.” I say giving in.

“Anything I can read?” he asks.

I shrug, “One of my fantasy stories, Shenelle is online, on Figment. You can read it if you want to.”

“Shenelle? Like the celebrity?” Liam asks, overhearing our conversation.

“No, it’s the title of one of my stories,” I say.

“Ah, will you give us spoilers?” Louis asks, laying on top of Liam’s lap to look at me.

Smiling, I shake my head, “nope. You have to read it.”

Niall and Jane are in a deep conversation about basketball. I’d bet she’s in heaven right now, I mean she gets to mix two of her biggest loves, Niall Horan and IU basketball. I don’t understand half of what they are saying, but obviously the rest of the boys do as they all join in every once in a while to make comments.

When the conversation lulls I put in a question of my own, “Would you guys ever want to do anything apart from make music?”

They all shake their head. “This is my dream,” Harry says. They nod in agreement.

“Singing is a blast,” Jane says.

“You sing?” Niall says.

She blushes and nods.

“What about you two?” he asks Alexis and me.

“I prefer dancing,” Alexis admits. “It’s more fun, plus I’m better at it.”

“I sing, I’m not that good, but it’s better than my two left feet,” I say, tracing patterns in the chair.

We all talk about singing, and our favorite songs. Alexis tells all of them that her favourite songs are some of theirs, which makes them very happy. Jane says a couple Christian artists, and then a couple of others.

I again, sit back and listen, enjoying learning as much as I can about these boys. This is the closest I’ve ever been to a celebrity and I’ve always wondered how they lived.

A couple of more times Harry tries to pull me into the conversation, so I answer and then drift back out again.

“Boys, these girls need to leave so you can have some rest before you have to leave for Kansas City in the morning,” Paul, the bodyguard that had originally shown me where the bathroom was, says from the door.

Louis looks at him upside down, lying on the floor, “Really Paul? We aren’t even tired, and it’s not like we aren’t going to stay up ‘till three anyway.”

Paul looks at him with a wry grin, “it is almost three.”

I look at him, completely stunned and then look down at my watch. He’s right, it’s 2:45, give or take a few minutes. Thank God we drove here by ourselves and that we had texted Alexis’s parents not to stay up and wait because we got to go backstage. Time really does fly when you are enjoying yourself.

“We should go before my mom flips,” Alexis says, she stands up. “This was really a dream come true.” She hugs each of the boys in turn, even though Harry doesn’t fully get up from his perch.

Jane gets up next, and does the same, hugging them all and saving Niall for last. To be honest, from my perspective it doesn’t look like either of them really want to let go. It’s pretty adorable.

I uncurl my legs out from under me and stand up, a bit wobbly from being tired. Harry gets up and catches me before I fall back into the chair.

“Thanks,” I mumble, trying to ignore the buzz running between us.

He grins at me, making my heart skip a beat, “No problem.”

I hug him first, and then Louis, Liam, Niall and Zayn.

Before I leave I turn and ask Harry, “I forgot to ask when I came in here, is your head okay?”

He rolls his eyes, “I don’t even feel it any more. Don’t worry your pretty head about it,” he rubs my shoulder. I open my mouth to argue the pretty thing and close it when he cuts me off, “Please don’t worry about it okay.”

I roll my eyes at him and grin, “I’ll try my best.”

He hugs me again and then we all leave, walking out the door, down the hall and then out into the back of the parking lot.

“Oh my God,” Alexis breathes out. “I can’t believe that actually happened. Are you sure this isn’t a dream?”

“Yes,” I yawn making it sound more like a cow than anything else. “Two people can’t have the same dream, let alone three.”

“That was so much fun!” Jane grins, looking like she did whenever she thought of one of her celebrity crushes.

I smile, “Yes, it was.”

“Harry hugged you twice,” Alexis points out.

“So?”

“What do you mean so? He didn’t hug any of us twice,” Jane remarks.

I unlock the car and climb into the drivers seat. Refusing to say anything more I just smile. I may not have a crush on Harry Styles anymore, but that didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy those hugs. While Jane and Alexis fangirl in the car next to me, I try to remember every little detail so I don’t forget a thing. Most importantly I didn’t want to forget how he made me feel, especially when he called me pretty, special. I smile softly to myself. This might have just been the best day ever.


	4. A Little Crush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry is completely smitten with Andromeda, but doesn't know what to do about it.

### Chapter 4: A little crush

##### Harry

“So, was it worth it?” Louis asks me, plopping down in the seat Andromeda had just vacated.

“Hmm?” I mumble, not paying attention.

"Was it worth making us pick her?” Zayn clarifies.

I nod, smiling at the memory of how easily I could make her smile, blush and squirm. There’s something about her that makes her different from all the other girls.

“How’s your head doing?” Liam asks me. “Has it really stopped hurting like you told her?”

They know me too well. “It still hurts a bit, but it’s not like I would tell her that. She already feels bad enough about it.”

“Aw,” Louis coos. “Harry has a crush.”

“Do not!” I counter, much to quickly for it to do any use in actually countering the accusation.

“You do,” Liam confirms. “It’s very obvious.”

“Harry and Andromeda sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” Louis sings.

“Thanks Lou,” I mess up his hair.

“Not like she would say no,” Zayn scoffs.

I shrug, “I don’t know. She’s not like anyone I’ve ever met, so she just might.”

“I don’t think she would,” he repeats. “At least not if I asked her right now. I get the feeling she wouldn’t kiss somebody she just met.”

“What makes you think that?” Liam asks.

I shrug, “she seemed to be unused to hugging people she just met. And that’s much less intimate than kissing.”

“What are we talking about?” Niall asks, finally coming into the conversation.

Louis turns to him and grins, “You’re too young to know.”

Niall sputters, “but I’m older than Harry.”

Louis just shakes his head and continues to grin.

“What are we talking about?” Niall asks again, looking at the rest of us.

Zayn looks pointedly at me, “we’re talking about how Harry needs to put on his big-boy pants and ask her out.”

“Who?” Niall is thoroughly confused at this point, though I kinda expected him to pick up on whom we’re talking about. He’s probably too busy thinking about Jane.

Liam shakes his head, “over his innocent little head, all of it.”

Niall starts protesting loudly, but is interrupted by Paul who comes in to get us out the door and back to the hotel before 5 am.

**

Two cities and five days later I still can’t get Andromeda out of my head. It’s not unusual for one of us to take a shine to one of the backstage pass winners, but normally it only last for about a day, two at the most.

“What’s up mate?” Louis pokes me in the ribs. “You were staring off into space again.”

I shrug, not really wanting give them more to poke fun at me about. Zayn seems to be the only one who has caught on as to why I’m so out of it.

“Just get her number from the security forms,” he mumbles, not bothering to look up from his phone.

“Are you still thinking about Andromeda?” Liam asks from in front of the TV.

“Yes. I don’t quite know what it is about her, but she was just,” I pause, looking for the right word. “Different.”

“Good different or bad different?” Louis asks, though he knows the answer.

I roll my eyes at him, “Good different.”

“Do we have any peanut butter?” Niall asks, sticking his head through the door to the kitchen. “What are we talking about?”

“How Harry is being an idiot and just needs to ask her out,” Zayn says, still not looking up from his phone.

“Who?” he asks, coming into the room a bit more.

“The girl from the backstage pass in Detroit,” I say, trying to sound nonchalant about it.

And immediately Niall’s face darkens, “Excuse me?”

I look at him puzzled, “you know, Andromeda.”

“Oh, right. That’s fine,” he mumbles, turning slightly pink.

“What was that about Niall?” Louis asks.

Niall turns an even darker shade of pink and says quickly, “Nothing. Do we have any peanut butter?”

I roll my eyes at him; evidently I’m not the only one who is crushing on one of those girls. “I’ll check Nialler. If not we can always check down at the hotel store if there isn’t some in the cabinet.” I stand up and walk into the kitchen.

There isn’t actually any peanut butter anywhere in the kitchen so I walk over to the door, “I’ll be back in a bit.”

I walk out of the room and toward the elevator, pushing the button to go down the twenty-three floors to the lobby.

“Don’t you need this?” Zayn says behind me, holding up the hotel card key.

I blush slightly, “Thanks Zayn.”

“So, what’s up with this girl?” he leans against the wall by the elevator. “I’ve never seen you like this over someone.”

“I don’t really know to be honest with you. She’s just,” I trail off, unable to find the right word.

Zayn raises his eyebrow and grins, “Different.”

I nod and grin at him.

“So, why don’t you get her number?” and there is the big question.

“Do you think I should?” I ask.

He rolls his eyes at me, “No duh. Look, I’ll get Niall the peanut butter and you go ask about getting her number.”

“Who do you think I should ask?”

He shrugs, “No clue. Maybe that one lady I can never remember the name of that keeps track or all the files.”

“I’ll go ask Paul,” I say, walking into the elevator and pushing the button for the exercise floor.

Zayn gets in beside me and pushes the button for the ground floor. “Did we ever get her last name?”

“Larsen,” I say.

“Like the American Girl doll?” he asks me.

I look at him sideways, “I think it’s spelled differently. How do you know any of the American Girl dolls last names?”

“My sister dragged me into the store when we were in Chicago,” he mutters. “I don’t know why I remember that.”

“Anyway,” I say as the elevator door opens. “I’ll see you later.”

It takes me forever to find the person who keeps the paperwork for the backstage pass winners, but I finally do. Andromeda’s handwriting is completely atrocious, but I can still understand her phone number.

 _Hello, is this Andromeda?_ I type and then send it to the number she wrote down on the file. I want to make sure that the number is correct before I end up giving some stranger my number.

Then I sit and wait for her to text back.


	5. Texting Harry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Andromeda and Harry begin to converse again over text.

### Chapter 5: Texting Harry

##### Andromeda

I stare blankly at the sheet of stats homework, as if staring at it will make it become magically done. We were doing Independence tests, something I absolutely sucked at. And this teacher was even pickier than my AP Stats teacher in high school. I was just happy that course allowed me to only take one Stats class instead of two like everyone else.

My phone starts vibrating on the table next to me, it was probably my cousin Sarah calling to let me know that her mom wanted me to be home in fifteen minutes. Even though I already knew that. I was staying with my aunt, uncle, and cousin while I was taking summer school because the dorms weren’t open at that time and I didn’t actually have a car that was mine, so I didn’t want to make my parents drive me an hour to get me to school.

It was funny, after I came back from the concert and told my cousin about meeting the band; she had been spending every second with me. I suspected she was trying to weasel out any details I might have forgotten to tell her.

But when I looked at my phone, it wasn’t Sarah, or Jane, who was the only other person who called me at five o’clock. My parents normally waited until 8, so I could do homework. The number was one I didn’t recognize, with an area code I didn’t know.

 _Hello, is this Andromeda?_ The text said.

I don’t answer the question, as I don’t give out my name to complete strangers, _Who is this?_

 _Here, it should be in the signature._ The reply says, without a signature.

 _You might want to just type it out. I don’t think the signature is working._ I smile wryly at the unknown individuals technical struggles.

_Harry Styles. Now will you answer my question?_

My eyes widen at that. I never thought I’d see that kid again, after the night of the concert. Why would he want to be in contact with me?

 _Yes, I’m Andromeda. How did you get my number?_ I didn’t exactly give it to him, and it certainly isn’t online.

_It was on those forms you had to fill out to get backstage. How are you?_

_My Stats homework is trying to kill me, but apart from that I’m good._ I type back, glaring at my homework. I swear, it’s taunting me.

_Your Stats homework is killing you? Why is that?_

_Because it is the devil incarnate in math._

_Ah. Why are you taking it then?_

Oh, that poor naïve boy. _It’s required for Psychology. I didn’t have much of a choice unfortunately._

 _Okay_ is the simple reply I get. Crap, maybe I scared him off or something.

 _So how are you? Is your head better?_ I type cautiously.

 _It’s fine. Do you ever stop worrying?_ Comes the quick reply.

I grin at my phone. _Rarely. How do I know you aren’t lying?_

A few seconds later another text comes in, with a picture attached this time. It’s a selfie of Harry smiling at me, pushing his bangs up so I can see his unmarked forehead. _See?_

_Okay, you convinced me. Where are you anyway?_

_Denver, at the hotel._

_Nice hotel. Can I ask you something?_

_Of course_ he types back, making me hit myself for not just asking the stupid question.

_Why did you text me? Do you do this with every girl who wins backstage?_

It takes him a minute to text back, almost as if he’s thinking about his answer, like he doesn’t exactly know why either.

 _I wanted to talk to you again. You were interesting. And besides, I figured you’d still be freaking out over hitting me in the head with that door._ I laugh.

 _You were right._ I didn’t know what else to say back. An internationally famous celebrity thought I was interesting and wanted to talk to me again? That was really hard to believe.

_So, anything interesting happening at school besides avoiding the murderous Stats?_

I’m about to reply when my phone starts buzzing again, the screen telling me that my cousin is calling. I roll my eyes and answer it.

“Yes Sarah?”

“Did you get caught up in a book again? You’re late for dinner,” she says.

I check my watch, currently it is 6:10. Wow, it must take longer to type responses than I thought. “No, just talking to someone. On my way now. What’s for dinner anyway?”

“Chicken, and some sort of vegetables,” Sarah says. My phone buzzes against my ear. “Was that you or me?”

“Me, I gotta go,” I say. “See you at home.”

“See ya,” she says and then hangs up.

I look at my phone. _Apart from texting me that is_ _J_. I’m not sure if he was afraid I wasn’t texting him back or if he had just forgotten to put that in.

_Sorry, my cousin called to tell me I was late for dinner. School is pretty normal, for me that is._

_What does normal for you look like?_

_Three classes a day and then homework. It’s like normal school but in the summer and less classes._

_Jeez girl. Do you ever do anything fun?_

_I read._

_That doesn’t count._

_Yes it does, reading the best way to spend an afternoon._

_If you say so…_

_How would you rather spend an afternoon then?_

_Making music, hanging out, cool stuff like that._

_That sounds fun, but I’d still rather be reading. What can I say I’m a nerd?_ I look up from my phone and almost run into Sarah coming out of the house.

“Who are you texting?” she asks.

“No one,” I reply as my phone buzzes again. _You’re just weird ;)_

I grin and quickly type a reply _Thanks_ _:)_ _I gotta eat dinner now. Can I text you back after?_

_Of course._ _J_

Dinner goes rather slowly for me, mainly because I want to text Harry back. It’s weird because I never was one for texting. I texted Jane a bit, mainly story ideas and such, but not really anyone else.

“Are you okay Andi?” my aunt asks me. Even though I go by Andromeda with most people, my family, and some of my friends still call me Andi.

“I’m fine,” I say, snapping out of my thoughts.

“She was texting someone earlier,” Sarah informs her parents.

“Who was it?” Aunt Faye asks.

I shake my head, knowing if I say my cousin will flip and I’ll never get my phone back, “no one. May I be excused?”

“Sure,” she says.

Sarah follows me into the kitchen. “It’s got to a be a boy, because you’re never this coy about texting Jane. So who is it?”

I pull out my phone and start typing a text to Harry. “I told you it’s nobody.” I press send, _I’m back. Dinner was boring. Did you do anything fun in the last thirty minutes?_

She grabs for it but I keep it out of her range.

_Nothing much. Niall went for food an hour ago and he still isn’t back yet._

I laugh. _You trusted Niall to get food and actually bring some back?_

_Yes, but now I do see the flaw in this plan._

_Now you see it ;)_

“Who is he?” Sarah asks again.

I sigh, waiting for him to text back, “his name is Harry.”

“Really?” her eyebrows go up in skeptical shock.

“Really.” My phone buzzes, _He’s back, and he brought all the food we could want. I think he might have emptied the mini-mart next door._

_Nice. That was the other outcome of that plan. What are you going to do with all that food?_

Sarah grabs my phone from me and scrolls up through the texts until she reaches the one where he says his name. And then she promptly drops it.

I scoop it up quickly, “I told you his name was Harry.” I quip and the dash up the steps to my room.

_I don’t quite know. We might give it to the hotel staff when we leave._

I start to type out, _Just to warn you, my cousin might steal my phone._ And just before I can hit send she does just that, grabbing my phone from me, and hitting the button that allows you to call the number you’re texting.

“Sarah!” I screech, and run after her as she bolts down the steps.

“Hi, I’m like your biggest fan!”

“Sarah McColley! Give me my phone back!” I yell at her, careening around a corner.

I can hear Harry’s confused but garbled reply from the phone.

“No I’m Sarah, her cousin.” She says, right before I snatch the phone away from her face.

“Sorry,” I say cutting off Harry. “My cousin stole my phone. She’s kind of obsessed with you guys.”

Sarah sticks her tongue out at me.

“Well, tell her it was nice to meet her,” he says, which I repeat to Sarah, who freaks out and goes running off to tell her mother just who I’m talking to on the phone.

“Sorry about that. I tried to warn you but she stole it before I could send the text,” I mutter.

He laughs, and a rush of warmth travels through my body. “It’s okay. I get it all the time.”

“You just didn’t expect it from my phone,” I joke.

“No, that was a bit confusing.” He admits.

I smile and then start to worry about something, “Do you mind talking on the phone or do you want to go back to texting?”

“This is fine,” he says, and then quickly adds, “Unless you don’t want to.”

I chuckle slightly, “I’m perfectly fine with it. I like actual conversations rather than texting anyway.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, it just seems more personal to me. Plus it’s a lot easier to avoid misunderstandings. You can hear voice inflections and everything,” I say as I’m walking back up to my room.

“That’s very true. I end up texting mostly because of my busy schedule,” he says. “But I like talking more.”

“Do you have a concert tonight?” I ask.

“Yeah, but I don’t have to be there for mic-check until eight, because it starts at ten,” he says.

“Then we have forty minutes to talk,” I reply, pleased.

And so I lay on my bed talking to Harry Styles for the next forty minutes. I’ve never talked to anyone on the phone for that long except Jane, and she’s my best friend. But after I hang up, before I can think much about it, Sarah comes in to interrogate me about him.


	6. Hot Chocolate in Summer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Andromeda and Harry meet and have their first face to conversation since the concert.

### Chapter 6: Hot chocolate in summer

##### Andromeda

My phone buzzes on the stand next to me. I groan and roll over, grabbing it as I do. Harry just texted me. _Good morning Andromeda_

 _Morning, you do know it’s 8:00, right._ I type back, laying on my pillow.

_Yup, I’ve been up for an hour. Someone set the alarm in my hotel room._

_Do you know who it is?_

_No, but when I find them they will pay._

_So you figured if you had to suffer someone might as well suffer with you then?_

_I actually thought you’d be up because of school._

_I don’t have class until 9:30 on Tuesdays. It’s my weird day._

_Ah, see I didn’t know that._

_It’s okay, you’re forgiven. I should probably get up anyway._

_Don’t want to sleep the day away ;)_

I think about how to respond to that for a while and then type, _What city are you in today?_

_Nashville. It’s the second to last city in the states we’re going to be in._

_Nashville’s great. It’s pretty close to Oxford too. Relatively._

_Would you like to get together sometime today?_

_Sure, we could meet halfway or something, like in Louisville somewhere._

_Where is that?_

_It’s in Kentucky, halfway between Oxford and Nashville, give or take a mile or two._

_That should work. What time does your class end?_

_12:30_

_So we could meet some place in Louisville around 3 then_

_Sounds good. What place though?_

_I’ll figure it out after the rest of the boys get up. They should be up and about in an hour or so._

_Right, cause they didn’t get woken by an errant alarm clock ;)_

_Hahaha, Lucky them…_

_:) I gotta get ready for class, but text me when you know where we’re meeting._

_Will do :)_

_Can’t wait_

I can’t resist typing the last text and I grin at his response: _Pins and needles I bet_

_Totally_

_Your sarcasm is wounding my ego_

_Well, it could use a bit of deflating ;)_

_Thanks Andromeda_

_Happy to oblige._

_Go get ready for class and stop texting me._

I roll my eyes and reply, _Yes sir_. Then I turn off my phone and walk to my closet to find my jeans. Unlike most girls I only have three pairs: my dressy jeans aka skinny jeans, my comfortable jeans, and my these-are-more-like-sweatpants-than-jeans-because-of-the-giant-holes-and-doodles-on-them jeans. I pull out the comfortable pair, knowing that if I wear my holey jeans I’ll probably end up having to talk with the teacher about wearing proper clothing to class. Not that I really care, he just picks on my because I’m the best in the class and I’m a girl.

“Andi!” my Aunt Faye yells from the bottom of the step. “Shouldn’t you be getting to class?”

“I’m coming.” I yell back, and quickly throw on one of the graphic tees that I got at Target.

Luckily I get to class on time, but that is mainly because I ended up putting my cheerios in a bag and eating them on the way over to the building.

Class seems to take forever, which is odd because I normally really enjoy this class. It’s very interesting, not like Stats at all. But it should be interesting because it’s my first Astrophysics class.

 _So bored._ I type out to Harry after an hour in class. _Have you figured out where we’re meeting?_

He texts back in under a minute. _Not quite yet. Do you have any suggestions?_

 _Do you like Panera?_ I text back under the table.

_Yup, there is one in Louisville I presume._

_Of course Harry… the question is which one_

_Thank you smarty pants._

_You’re welcome._ I think for a second and then type. _You’re going to have to figure that out cause I’m still in class._

_Oooh, you’re texting in class_

_Like you haven’t done it_

_Hahaha true… How about the one off of 71, I’ll send you the address._

_Sounds great._

“Andromeda, can you tell me what is wrong with this equation?” the professor asks me, probably aware that I’m texting under the table and is trying to catch me.

I look at the problem on the whiteboard and give him the answer before looking back down at my lap. He hasn’t texted me back, probably because he didn’t know what else to say.

_I should stop texting. My professor almost caught me._

_I wouldn’t want to get you in trouble, then you might have to stay after_

_That would suck. But I’ll see you in a couple of hours :)_

I grin at his reply: _Can’t wait,_ And text back: _Pins and needles ;)_. Then I slip my phone back into my messenger bag and do my best to pay attention to the professor for the rest of class.

**

I had been driving for two hours now, and for some reason my right foot hurt. Probably because I had been pressing down the gas for the whole two hours. There are no stoplights on the interstate and it’s a straight shot down 71 south once you get on off of 275. It was only about twenty more minutes until I got to the Panera.

Truth be told I’m kinda nervous about seeing Harry again. It’s probably just because he’s famous. I mean he is the only famous person I’ve ever met for the second time. Not that I’ve meet many celebrities. Just Harry and the rest of the band.

I pull off the interstate and stop at a light. This is the finicky part, as I have to make several turns before I reach Panera. But luckily I make it there without getting lost. Jane has promised to get me a GPS for my birthday, but until then I’m stuck with my phone.

I climb out of my car and straighten my shirt. Oh God. I wore a pair of everyday jeans and a t-shirt to meet Harry Styles. I’m not normally self-conscious, but I normally dress for the occasion as well. God, I’m going to look like an idiot.

“Andromeda!”

I whorl around and see Harry leaning on a silver Porsche. His face is split by a giant grin, and he starts walking toward me.

“Hi Harry, how long have you been here?” I ask, walking into his greeting hug.

He steps back and shrugs, “about five minutes. I got here a bit early just in case, but you seem to be early as well.”

“That’s me, Andromeda Larsen, always early,” I say and wink at him.

A small part of my brain is wondering what is up with me, not that I mind it, but I’ve never been this confortable with a boy before. There is just something about Harry that makes me feel safe, and free to be myself. It’s probably because of how calm he reacted to the way we met.

“Oh I see,” he smirks at me. “And why is that?”

I shrug, “Old habits die hard I guess. My parents are always early, so I end up being early to most things as well.”

“That makes sense. I have to make an effort to be early to things,” he starts walking inside, his curly hair bouncing as he walks. It’s actually quite distracting. I try to ignore the slight flutter in my chest.

Wait, if he has to make an effort to be early to things, does that mean he made an effort to be early to see me? Okay, don’t go there Andromeda. My mind pouts, so I amend my statement. At least not right now.

“I always hated being early, because I’m naturally shy. It meant I had to stand in a room full of kids I didn’t know and wait for the kids I did know to arrive,” I admit to him.

He looks at me dubiously, “you’re shy?”

I nod, “In normal circumstances yes. When I don’t meet someone by hitting them in the head with a door while trying to find the bathroom. Besides, you should know that. You spent a good portion of time around me backstage trying to force me to talk.”

“True,” he mutters. “Do you want something?”

I look up at the board of things to order and then back at him, “I know it’s really weird, it being summer and all. But I’d like a hot chocolate.”

“You like hot chocolate?” he smiles at me, as we move up in the line.

I nod, “It’s one of my favourite things. Actually it’s my comfort food.”

“Do you require your comfort food?” somehow he manages to smirk and look somewhat concerned at the same time.

Damn my blush, I think as I feel my face heating up, “N-no. I was just mentioning it.” I stutter.

He grins at me as we move up again, “It’s okay. Why do you want hot chocolate then though?”

“I just have a hankering for it I guess,” I smile at him, and don’t realize that we’re at the front of the line until Harry steps up to order.

“Can I have a cinnamon crunch bagel with cream cheese, a lemonade, and a hot chocolate?” he asks the lady in line politely.

It takes me a second to realize he’s trying to pay for my order. “Hey, I can pay for my own drink you know.” I tell him, holding up my wallet.

“I know.” He says before turning back to the waitress.

“Will that be all?” she asks, grinning slightly at us.

“Yes, I believe so,” he hands her the money before I can protest again.

“Wait here please,” she says, and then walks back to get our order.

“I really could pay for it. You didn’t have to do that,” I mutter, somewhere between put off and grateful.

“I know you could, but you did drive two hours to see me,” he points out.

“So did you,” I reply sulkily.

He looks at me, “do you not like people buying things for you?”

I shake my head, “I have a hard time when Jane lends me money, and she’s my best friend.”

“Ah, I see,” he says. “Well, you’re going to have to get used to this. I like doing things for people, especially now that I have money.”

“I guess,” I mutter, not completely convinced.

The waitress comes up and hands us our drinks and Harry his bagel. We walk over to a table by the window and sit down opposite each other.

I fidget in my seat for a second and then look up at him, “So how has your tour been going?”

“Meh, It’s the same as always. It’s amazing but it’s the same.” He raises his eyebrows and grins at me. “Not half as exciting as classes must be, though. What type of classes did you have today?”

“Intro to Astrophysics. It’s really complicated and quite hard, but I love it.”

“So, what do you want to do with Astrophysics then? I’ve never really, you know…gone to Uni or anything…” he blushes embarrassed, which is probably the most adorable thing ever.

“You have your music, you didn’t have to go,” I smile at him and roll my eyes. “But I want to be a professor. It’s been a dream of mine for I don’t know how long.”

He looks interested, “A professor? What would you want to teach? Teaching astrophysicism right?”

I try my hardest not to roll my eyes or laugh at his made up word. At least he’s trying. “Astrophysics, but yeah. Theoretical mainly. I mean I haven’t taken anything in Theoretical Astrophysics yet, but I think that’s where I want to go.”

He grins and looks down at the table, shaking his head in a little bit of shock. “What made you interested in astrophysicism-astrophysics, I mean? It’s just, of all the things, I know of no one else who has studied that.”

I blush slightly, “It’s actually kinda embarrassing. I mean getting interested in Astrophysics that is. I’ve always loved science. But” I pause, “have you by any chance seen Stargate?”

He bites his lip and tries not to smile, which is very distracting by the way. “If I said yes you’d end up asking me about it and I’d look ridiculous. I haven’t. Why?”

My face heats up even more, and I smile, slightly embarrassed, “Well, my family used to watch it all the time. My parents got into it before I was born. But anyway, there is this character on the show who’s name is Samantha Carter, and she is an astrophysicist for the military. I won’t go into all the details of the show, but that’s what got me really interested.”

He smiles knowingly, “I can understand that, getting inspiration from someone really amazing you’ve seen and heard of. I’ve done that too, with plenty of music artists. I really look up to Chris Martin in that kind of way.”

“That’s pretty cool. And now you can meet people like that,” I beam at him.

He grins, “yeah, that’s the most amazing part that I never get used to, seeing people I think of as legends and getting to actually meet them.” He shakes his head, “I just think that people are nuts when they look at me that way. I mean, I’m not…I’m not anything. I’m just Harry.” Then he smiles up at me, “That’s kind of how you treat me. Just Harry.”

I blush slightly and smile back at him, “I try. Most people think it’s really odd, but I never could think about celebrities as anything but people who have their lives on display but get to do pretty awesome stuff that most of us just dream about.”

He nods encouragingly, “No, that’s a really good way to look at them! It’s much better than putting them up on a pedestal above everyone else and letting them get away with leading crappy lives and setting bad examples.”

“That’s very true,” I say thoughtfully. I’ve never heard a celebrity say something like that. Then again I’ve never really talked to one one-on-one before today either.

He shakes his head again, “Sometimes the fans we have drive me crazy that way. You’re friends with one of them, aren’t you? The one that fancied Liam?”

I laugh, “Alexis, yeah. She’s a bit… obsessed.” My eyes widen as I realize I might have said to much and I backtrack a bit, “In a good way, that is but still.”

Harry nods, smiling at me. “She’s the type of fan we see a lot. Your other friend seemed like a fan, as well, but not quite so…enthusiastic. Which is why Niall probably started to like her in the first p—oh, damn, don’t tell anyone I said that. Niall would kill me.”

I laugh again, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. I prefer you alive. Besides, I kinda picked up on something of that nature when we were there.”

He grins slyly at me, “So you prefer me alive, hmm?”

I blush, and try to come up with a reasonable answer, “well, you can’t talk if you’re dead, can you?”

“That’s true,” he smirks. “Is that all I’m good for? Talking?”

My cheeks get even hotter and I look down at my hot chocolate mug, “I’m not sure I want to answer that question, or can without stuttering for that matter.”

Instead of responding he just chuckles and takes a sip of his lemonade, drawing my eyes to his mouth. I look away instantly and go back to starring at my mug, knowing if I look up my face is going to become redder than a tomato.

“Do I make you nervous?” he asks.

I blink and look back up at him. “That depends.” I say, going for the diplomatic answer and hoping he’ll let me get away with it.

He arches his eyebrows, grinning. “On?” Nope, he’s not letting me get away with it.

“On what we’re talking about, and if I remember, for lack of a better term, how out of my league you are.” _And when I keep remembering just how attractive you are._ I tell my brain to shut up before it makes me say anything stupid out loud.

He rolls his eyes, “I am by no means out of your league. And here I thought you were the one who didn’t put celebrities on pedestals.” He knits his eyebrows together thoughtfully, and before I can respond says,  “well…we were talking about all I’m good for, but apparently you only think I’m good for talking.” He smirks and winks at me, fully away that he is not being very nice about this.

I glare at him playfully, “That’s not what I meant and you know it.” I pause, and then say, “And I don’t put celebrities on a pedestal, I just have a tendency to put myself below most everyone else. And it isn’t a good tendency either,” I add, before he can mention it.

He frowns, “no, that isn’t.” He shakes his head, causing his hair to whip around and get even messier, and then I can see he as pieced something together, “So you do think I’m good for something other than talking then?”

We’re still on this?

I blush and say slowly, “yes.”

He grins as if he’s won some prize, “by all means enlighten me.”

My face gets even redder and I stutter out, “well… I mean… It’s hard to pin point really… I mean, you’re sweet, and you listen to me, and you’re funny.” I stop myself abruptly before I can go on anymore. I’m not waxing poetic in front of Harry Styles, especially not about him.

But instead of jumping on what I just said, he smiles kindly at me, “well, if it helps, I think you’re good for much more than just talking, too. Much more.”

I look at him and see the sincerity in his face. “Thanks. That means a lot to me.” I grin. That was a really big complement.

He checks his watch, “We’ve been here for a while, haven’t we?”

I blink and check mine as well. We’ve been talking for about the past hour and a half. “Yeah, I hadn’t really noticed.” I slosh the last fourth of my hot chocolate around in the cup, “this is probably cold by now.”

Harry grins and shakes his head, “hot chocolate in summer…”

“Cold chocolate isn’t as good,” I shrug.

He nods, “I can definitely agree with you there.” He makes a face and I crack up.

“You look funny when you do that,” I say through my laughter. He makes another one, seemingly just because I enjoy it, and I laugh even more.

He laughs along, “I’m just funny-lookin’”

I stick my tongue out at him, you aren’t funny-lookin’, you can just do funny things with your face.”

“Naw, I’m just funny-lookin’” He tries to smile with his whole face, lifting his eyebrows up and grinning wide.

I laugh and roll my eyes, “If you say so.” I tell him in a voice that clearly states I don’t agree with him on the matter but I don’t want to argue it anymore.

After that, he just starts trying to prove himself right, and make me laugh, by making even funnier faces, that though they really shouldn’t, look absolutely adorable on him. It’s weird. Something about that kid just makes everything he does cute and attractive.

 _Well_ , I think as he makes another face at me, _I might have just developed a crush on Harry Styles._ I smile up at him. _This should be interesting._


	7. Flying Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry thinks about Andromeda, and leaving the US is bittersweet.

### Chapter 7: Flying home

##### Harry

“Ready to go home?” Louis asks me, plopping down on my hotel bed, where I was packing up my clothes.

I nod, folding a pair of pants.

Louis isn’t convinced, “What’s up? Normally you’re ecstatic about going home. But you aren’t right now.”

I shrug and start folding a t-shirt, “I don’t really know. I’m happy to go home, you know. But it’s just not the same.” _Because she isn’t coming with you._ My head says unbidden.

Louis picks up on why I’m not as happy about going home, “It’s because of Andromeda, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” I say, and stop folding my clothes. “I kinda wish she was coming with us, you know.”

“You’ve got it bad,” Louis teases me.

I whack him on the arm, “no I don’t.”

“Yes you do,” he retorts. “I’m not pinning over her, and you are. Though it would be nice to have her here just because it would make you stop moaning that she isn’t” he winks at me, and gets up off the bed.

“Thanks for the support Lou,” I roll my eyes at him, and zip up my suitcase. “Are you even packed yet?”

He rolls his eyes at me, “No, I’m putting it off because I don’t want to have to shove everything into the suitcase and sit on it so it will fit.”

“I can help you if you want.”

“No, go off and text Andromeda,” he flaps his hands at me and then leaves.

Dutifully I pull out my phone and type out a quick text, _Hey, whatcha doing?_ That’s not a phrase I would normally use, but Andromeda uses it quite frequently, and I’ve gotten to using it as well.

She texts me back almost immediately, _Contemplating whether I should do anything today._

_What’s the other option._

_Driving back to my home and helping my mother clean out my old room._

I roll my eyes, _That doesn’t sound too bad._

_I hate cleaning remember._

Oh right, she texted me a picture of her room once, saying that she had cleaned it. It looked similar to my room when it was dirty. _Ah, then I would suggest staying and doing nothing. What exactly does that mean for you?_

_Reading, on my bed, in sweats._

Now that would be interesting to see. _What are you reading?_

_I’m rereading Harry Potter for the fifth or sixth time._

_Sounds like fun, though I still can’t understand how you read that much._

_I love it._ She replies and then quickly follows with, _What are you doing?_

_Just finished packing._

_Are you headed back home now?_

_Yup,_ I type, not sure what else to add. Normally I would be gushing about how happy I am to see my family again, but I’m not sure I want to leave. Not that I’m not thrilled to see my family again, I am. Uh, it’s just confusing.

_You excited?_

I think about it before answering, _Yeah. I’m going to miss it here though. I had a lot of fun._

 _We’ll not be able to text and talk as much are we._ I hope she is disappointed when she writes that.

 _No, and we can’t get together either_ _  
_

_It sucks, but still it’s Europe._

 smile, agreeing with her, as it is my home. Still it’s slightly puzzling for her because she lives here. _Do you not like the states?_

_The states are great, but I’ve always loved Europe. I want to live there when I get out of college, maybe go to grad school in England, if I can get in that is._

I didn’t know that. _Of course you can get in. That’s really cool. You should come out to Holmes Chapel sometime and see me_ _  
_

_That would be awesome. But it probably wouldn’t be for a while because I spent all my savings on my bug._

_Your bug?_ Why would you by a bug, can’t you just get them for free on a tree or something.

_My Volkswagen beetle, the one I drove up to Louisville in. I just bought it at the end of my freshman year because my jeep died, and I’ve wanted one for as long as I can remember._

_Ah, yes, I remember it. That’s a pretty sweet car. But you don’t have to pay for your trip, I can._

_No, you don’t have to._

_I know I don’t, but I want to. Besides, you won’t be able to come until Christmas or something right?_

_True. I guess we can postpone this argument until a later date. What time does your flight leave?_

_6 at night. So about six or seven hours from now._

_Cool, I suppose Ginny could be stuck in the Chamber of Secrets for a couple more hours before Harry and Ron rescue her._

_Do you want to Skype or text or what?_

_Skype would be great, as long as you don’t mind that I look like shit._

I laugh. Most girls probably wouldn’t be brave enough to admit that she wasn’t all put together, let alone let me see it. _I don’t mind. Do you?_

_Not really. I don’t really care how I look as long as I’m presentable._

_Cool. What’s your skype name?_

She texts it to me.

 _Got it, text me when you get the invite._ I grin and type in her name on my skype account. Soon I’ll get to see her. I run my fingers through my hair and wait for her to accept my invite.

**

 _Are you through security?_  Andromeda asks me, we’ve been talking on and off all day. Earlier we had skyped for two hours before her Aunt made her come down and eat something for lunch. Then we had texted on and off for the last three hours, she was reading during the time, and I was going to the airport and getting ready to leave for London.

_Just got through._

_Good, and your phone wasn’t wiped I presume._

_No… could it have been?_ Sometimes she makes references and comments that make no sense to me, but that’s probably because she’s a ton smarter than me.

_Some people think so. They think that security is a big conspiracy. But sometimes depending on the technology, x-rays can damage it._

_Ah… that made no sense._

_Doesn’t make much to me either._ She admits.

_Are you still reading The Chamber of Secrets?_

_I’m onto The Prisoner of Azkaban, just started it though. _

The lady at the counter come on over the loud speakers, “First class and priority boarding may load now.” I get up, taking my carry on, and type out a reply to Andromeda, _Cool. They just started boarding the plane._

 _And of course you get on first ‘cause you’re in first class_ She says, playing upset but really joking with me.

 _Only way to fly babe_. I send that text and then get a bit nervous. What if I’m going to scare her away by calling her ‘babe’.

My fears are assuaged when she texts me back, _I’m sure, but exit seats aren’t too bad either, and it’s for less money._

 _True. But I can afford it._ I reply when I collapse into my seat on the plane. Louis takes my bag and stores it in the overhead smirking at me, but I pay no attention, as Andromeda just texted back.

_Lucky you. Do you get those complimentary peanuts and wine?_

_I believe so. But the food sucks._

_Tell me about it. I get steak and potatoes tonight._

I stick my tongue out at my phone. _Rats, can I have some?_

_No, you have to fly home remember._

_Right, I think I can handle one bad meal. Not sure about Niall though._

_Won’t he eat anything that’s put in front of him within reason._

_True… But he’ll probably still go to Nando’s right after we land._

_Of course._

_Do you have to make dinner, or is your aunt doing that?_

_My aunt. I can’t cook that well. I’m basically limited to black beans and rice, macaroni, and hot dogs._

_I’ll have to teach you how to cook sometime._ I smile at the thought of her in my kitchen listening to me tell her how to make some fancy dish.

_That would be awesome! I’d love that!_

Good, I would too. _It’s a deal. Whenever we see each other again I’m going to teach you how to cook._

 _Sounds like a plan._ _  
_

I’m about to type out a reply when the airhostess comes up next to me and says, “I’m sorry sir, but you’re going to have to put that away. The doors just closed.”

I look up at her, using my charm to my advantage, “just one more text please?”

She smiles at me, “Okay, one more.”

_Definitely. I gotta go, the plane is about to take off. I’ll text you when we land._

_Can’t wait._ _Have a safe flight._

Before the airhostess can say anything I type back _Pins and Needles,_ and then turn off my phone.

“Who is she?” the airhostess asks me.

I turn and blink at her, “who’s who?”

“The girl you were texting.” She nods at the phone I put on the armrest. “You obviously like her a lot.”

I blush and shake my head, “No. We’re just friends.”

“Of course you are,” she smirks and then walks over to another passenger who calls her, before I can debate her further.

“Are you in denial mate?” Louis turns and asks me.

I shake my head, “Just not sure I guess. I mean I think I like her, but not as much as you all seem to think.”

He pats my shoulder, the way you would pat a five year old who just told you that 2+2=5, “just keep thinking that.”

I stick my tongue out at him, “It’s true!”

“Of course it is,” he says in the same voice as the airhostess.

I turn to glare out the window but my eye catches on my phone and I grin. I wonder how much trouble I would get in if I kept texting Andromeda. Probably shouldn’t risk it, but I want to.

The airhostess interrupts my thoughts by giving me a glass of champagne. This is a British flight, and not an American one, which means I can have alcohol. I sit back in my seat and settle in for the long flight.


	8. You Know Something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jane gets a text from Niall and her and Alexis find out about Harry and Andromeda's friendship.

### Chapter 8: You know something

##### Andromeda

I flop down on the makeshift bed in Jane and Alexis’ apartment with a sigh. I had driven up the previous night from Oxford to visit my friends for the weekend and they were letting me stay in their apartment. Unlike the first night, where I had gotten in at around 11 o’clock and crashed about two seconds later, we were having a bit of a sleepover. Alexis already had drunk two cups of coffee, and Jane three cups of tea, so they were both hyper. I stuck to my good old hot chocolate.

Jane’s phone jingles and she looks down at her phone and checks the text with a confused look on her face, “I got a text from someone I don’t know: ‘Just read your fanfiction… Christ you’re a good writer. I’ll make sure that the other lads read it too.’” She looks up at us baffled, eyes wide. “The other lads? Naw, it can’t be…can it?”

“Text them back!” Alexis yells eagerly. Hopefully the people next door didn’t plan on sleeping much tonight.

I lean over to look at her phone and smile. “It probably is him,” I tell Jane about the person she mentioned earlier, who is, of course Niall Horan. “I mean, who else could it be that would know your number?”

She looks up at me and frowns, “Andi, why the heck would any of them have my number? Someone just found it on Facebook or something.”

I roll my eyes at her, and supply the answer that Harry gave me when I asked him that same question. “You wrote it down yourself on those forms we had to fill out to get in.”

Jane snorts, “And they’d actually make the effort to go and find it? They probably go rid of that stuff after we left!”

I smile slyly, kinda proud that for once I know something about these boys that she and Alexis don’t. “You’d be surprised.” Jane’s phone jingles again, and I order her with a grin, “Check it, he just texted back.”

She rolls her eyes at me as she opens her phone, “It’s not a” she trails off when she sees what seems to be a selfie of Niall himself. “he.” She just stares at her phone, bug eyed.

Alexis looks over Jane’s shoulder and then screams, “Oh my god Jane look! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!”

I laugh at both of their reactions, “told you so.”

Jane is still staring in shock at the phone, but slowly a crazy smile is spreading across her face.

Alexis gets up and paces around the room, screaming and freaking out in general. Yes, I certainly hope the people in the apartments around us didn’t want to get sleep tonight. Or they simply weren’t there at all.

Jane finally looks up at me, still in complete shock, and I realize that neither one of them is going to be doing much until they get prodded to.

“Text him back!” I tell her grinning.

Jane, grinning like a goon, starts tapping out a text message. Alexis dives over to Jane and stares over her shoulder.

“What are you saying? What, what, what?” she yells, evidently not able to read Jane’s text through her excitement.

“’Haha, hey that looks like Niall’” she reads off, laughing giddily.

I’m just sitting there laughing at the somewhat repeat scenario of Harry texting me, and how different the two of them reacted. Alexis’ has more in common with my cousin that me.

Jane looks up after sending her text, still grinning, and cocks her head at me, “how did you know?” she giggles.

I shrug, still smiling, “just a hunch.”

She raises and eyebrow, “uh, right, just a hunch.” She opens her mouth to say more with the phone buzzes again.

Alexis screams, “He texted you back! Oh my god! What did he say?”

I flip over onto my stomach and prop my head up on my hands, resting my elbows on the floor. “Do tell, before Alexis has a heart attack.”

Jane giggles and opens the phone, blushing as she’s reading the text.

“What? What?” Alexis says excitedly, and I swear she’s going to burst a blood vessel if she keeps this up.

Sheepishly Jane reads out, “’Absolutely, babe. The one and only.’”

Of course Alexis freaks out even more over that, her eyes getting huge, “Oh god! Niall Horan just called you babe! Oh god!” she starts crying she’s so overwhelmed.

I put an arm around her and then look back at Jane, “What are you going to say back?”

She grins at her phone in shock, types, and then reads it aloud, “’Oh, well, uh, hi! You’re the last person I ever expected to hear from… how exactly do you have my number?” she looks thoughtfully at me.

I look back at her, “What?”

She looks at me suspiciously, “Why do I get the feeling you know more than you’re letting on?”

“I know a ton more than I tell you,” I shrug, trying to keep a straight face. “I know that the earth is 93 million miles away from the sun and that a highlighter explodes in the microwave, and what I learned at my psych class yesterday.”

“Andromeda,” she uses her warning voice on me. “You know full well what I mean.”

My head falls in between my hands and onto the floor, and then I look up at Jane, “Yes, I do. To both questions mind you. Well, the second one wasn’t really a question but it still sorta counts.”

“Just please explain yourself-“ she says exasperated.

Alexis interrupts her, “He just texted you again! Answer it!”

Jane looks down eagerly at her phone and reads off, “’I have my ways, wink-y face, mwahahaha.”

They look at each other in confusion and I roll my eyes, “I told you, he got it off of those forms we filled out. It’s the only logical option, seeing as you don’t put your number on Facebook.”

Jane seems to remember what we were just discussing and narrows her eyes at me, “sounds like you’ve had some first hand experience here, Andi.”

I can’t quite keep the grin off my face, “maybe.” I sigh, and give in, knowing it will be better if I don’t get interrogated. “Harry texted me about two weeks ago.”

They both gawk at me in complete stupefaction.

I roll my eyes, “and this is why I didn’t tell you until now. It was bad enough having Sarah find out.”

Jane looks pained, “you really don’t trust us enough?”

“No, it wasn’t about trust,” I say, pained as well for making my friends feel like that. “I just wanted it to seem normal for a few days. Just like I was texting some ordinary bloke, you know. And it wouldn’t be like that once you two freaked out about it. Not that I mind it at all.” I stare up at the window. “I just wanted to pretend for a while.”

She rolls her eyes, annoyed at me, “Andi, you know this is how I would react if any boy texted you. The fact that it’s Harry Styles is a bit, er…disconcerting…but honestly, if he’s been texting you, then you go, girl.” She looks down at the phone and starts texting Niall back.

Alexis is still staring at the ground in complete stupefied shock.

I blush, shamefaced, “Yeah, I think I forgot that part. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. I feel like a crappy friend now.”

Jane sends her text and looks back up at me, smiling, “You’re not a crappy friend. I’m happy for you!”

Alexis says quietly, with her head down, “I’m going to go get a snack.” And she runs out of the room quickly, hiding her face from both of us.

I laugh lightly, not thinking much of it, “I think we might have just blown her mind. Can I see what you texted?” I lean over to look at Jane’s phone.

She stares uneasily after Alexis, but turns back to me and shows me her phone. ‘Haha I see, your ways… ;) for what exactly.’ Then she asks me, “When did Harry start texting you?

“About two weeks ago. We’ve been texting ever since then. I’d let you read them, but it would take you a while,” I look out the door where Alexis went. “If she doesn’t come back in a minute we’ll go find her, okay?”

She sighs uneasily, “I don’t know what to say to her. Think about it- we’re both being contacted by two of the boys that are her heroes and a huge part of her life, and she’s…well, not. I just don’t know how to make it better.”

I sigh, but then I get an idea, “About what time is it in England?”

She blinks and checks the time, “uh… well… it’s a five hour difference… three in the morning. Niall has crazy stupid sleeping patterns.” Her phone buzzes and she checks it again.

“Ask him if any of the other boys are up,” I say, my eyes gleaming.

Jane grins to herself reading the text and types a response, absently replying to me, “Okay… I doubt it, unless they’ve got major jet lag.”

“You’d be surprised. But I really just need to know if Harry is up,” I look over Jane’s should to see if she has texted Niall about my question. She hasn’t. But he has confirmed my theory about how he got the number.

“Why don’t you just text him yourself, now that I think about it? You have his number and he likes texting you!” she grins at me.

“True, I suppose texting him won’t wake him up if he isn’t already up. He got woken early by an errant alarm clock a few days ago,” I open the phone and type out: _Hey, if you’re up could you do me a favor?_

Jane stands up, “I’m going to find Alexis, talk a little.”

“Okay, I’ll be down in a minute,” I look back down at my phone as Jane gets out the door. Then it buzzes: _What is it?_

_So, Niall finally texted Jane, and Alexis found out about that, and that you’re texting me, and she’s really jealous and sad because well, you can guess why._

_I think I see where you’re going here. Can I talk to her?_

_Yes, here is her number,_ I type out Alexis’ number, including the area code. _Don’t forget to type the area code so you don’t get some random person._

_Okay, I’ll do that._

_Thank you. You’re the best._

_I know :)_ he texts back, and then I walk downstairs to find Alexis and Jane in the kitchen. Alexis is crying and Jane is trying to console her. I walk in and put my arm around her.

Jane is about to say something else when Alexis’ phone goes off. We all look at it puzzled, as it isn’t a number that either of them recognized. I did but I didn’t let on.

She answers it, “Hello?”

I can’t hear Harry’s answer on the other end, but in a second Alexis’ face lights up. Jane turns and smiles at me.

“Do you want some food?” I ask Jane, wanting to give Alexis some privacy in talking to Harry.

“I’m good,” she says, looking back to Alexis.

I pull open a couple of cabinets, but I can’t find any sort of cereal. “Where’s the cereal?”

She comes over and pulls open the one cabinet that I didn’t open. “Here you go.” There is a box of Special K in the back so that’s what I pulled out.

Alexis talks to Harry for about five minutes or so, her face getting brighter all the time. Eventually she hangs up and then turns to us with a huge grin on her face, and then she glares playfully at me.

“Yeah, don’t think I don’t know what you did. But thank you, that means a lot!” She jumps off the counter where she was sitting and grabs me in a bear hug.

I hug her back, but don’t say anything because I don’t want to make her feel bad again. I’m not to good with this type of things.

She is still crying, but it’s happy now, “Oh my god! Thank you, Andi! I have Harry Styles’s phone number in my phone! And he just talked to me even though he didn’t have to!” Then she turns and grin at Jane, “This might just be the best day ever! Has Niall still been texting you?”

Jane grins and sheepishly nods, “he thinks I nailed them all as characters! I feel like crying happily myself!”

I shake my head laughing, “I love you both.”

“I nailed them as characters and I didn’t even know them!” she says ecstatically, hopping up and down on her toes, grinning like a fiend.

Alexis turns back to me and grins, “And apparently you and Harry have had a thing going for a while! He mentioned something about Panera… what else are you hiding?” she waggles her eyebrows.

I grin, embarrassed, “Well, uh, so you know how they were in Nashville like half a week ago?”

Both of them nod, not seeing where I’m going with this.

“Well, Nashville is pretty close to Oxford, given everything. And I wanted to see him again, and apparently he wanted to see me too, so he suggested we meet somewhere in the middle,” I explain, blushing profusely.

Jane gapes and then grins, “Well, someone’s been busy and secretive. Wow! Man, he’s got it bad for you.”

I blush but shake my head, “I wish, but he doesn’t.”

She gives me a Look, “Shut up, Andi. He obviously does.”

Alexis also gives me a Look, “we would know. I would know, especially. Harry’s been the one contacting you, not the other way around. He even said he was happily surprised when you texted him just now without him having to text first.”

I sigh and hop up onto the counter top, “I hope you’re right.” I haven’t told them about the fact that I might have a crush on him because if I do then I’ll have to admit it to myself. And I’m not sure if I want to do that just yet.

Jane grins and rolls her eyes, “of course I am! I’m always right.” She winks and Alexis giggles at both of us.

I laugh, giving in for the minute, “of course you are.”

Jane’s phone buzzes and she resumes texting Niall.


	9. A Stats Miracle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Andromeda gets her stats grades back and calls Harry about it.

### Chapter 9: A stats miracle

##### Andromeda

I’m walking down to lunch a week after my last exam when someone calls my name.

“Andromeda!” I turn and see Kaylee, one of my classmates from Stats, running toward me, grinning like a buffoon.

“Hey,” I stop and wait for her to catch up to me. “What’s up?”

“Have you checked your grades for the final yet?” she asks, her blonde hair blowing around her face because of the summer wind.

I shake my head, “I didn’t know they were in.”

“You should check!” She says, grinning and bouncing up and down like her normal high energy self. Kaylee is one of those girls that can have energy after pulling two all-nighters in a roll and have it not be from caffeine. Still, she is really nice, and normally one of the people I sit next to, along with her boyfriend Max.

“What’d you get for the Stats exam?” I ask her.

“90,” she says proudly. “Well, actually a 89.6 but it rounds up so I’ll take it.”

I smile at her, “good job.”

"I’m on my way to tell Max,” she says. “He should still be in his apartment. I wonder what he got.”

“I’m sure he’ll be proud of you.” I reply, watching her as she begins to walk away.

“Text me what you got when you find out!” She yells back at me.

“I will,” I grin, and then begin walking to the food court, where I was headed originally anyway. Luckily enough for me they have wi-fi, and I brought my computer to work on some stuff.

Soon enough I get my lunch, ham sandwich and a bowl of black olives, and sit down at a small table toward the back of the room. I plop my computer down on the table and log in. While I’m waiting for it to load I start to eat my sandwich, saving the black olives for later.

When my grades pop up a little number is looking back at me.

Statistics 2 Final Exam…. 97%

My face breaks into a ginormous grin. 97. I got a 97 on my final exam for statistics. This mean I got an A plus in the class. Oh my gosh! I have to tell someone about this!

I think for a second about who I should call. Jane is at her job right now, so I can’t call her. My parents are also at their jobs and my brother is currently on a date.

My cursor hovers over the skype button. I should call Harry. But I might get him up. No, it’s 6 o’clock there, give or take a few minutes. And skype says he’s online anyhow.

So I click the button and wait for him to answer. Five minutes and a couple of tries later his face finally appears on screen, his brown hair ruffled and natural looking, without all the gel and gunk he puts in it sometimes, his green eyes twinkling.

“You’re certainly persistent,” he grins at me.

I shrug, a bit smug. “I knew you were there, somewhere.”

“Wasn’t in the room till a few seconds ago,” he says, as an explanation as to why he didn’t answer.

“Ah, I see. I have something to tell you,” my eyes are sparkling with excitement.

“What is it?” he leans into the screen.

“We got our exam grades back today. And guess what I got?” I say, starting to get even more excited.

“An A of course,” he says grinning.

“Not just any A. A 97%. And this means I have an A for the semester which I worked my butt off for!” I beam.

He smiles even wider, “That’s awesome! I’m so proud of you.”

“Thanks.”

“Not that I didn’t know you could do it,” he smirks.

I roll my eyes at him, “That was a hard class. I didn’t think I could do it at some points.”

“I know, you told me all about it remember. But you’re so brilliant I knew you could,” he says. “Why did you put yourself through it anyway?”

“Had to,” I shrug. “It was required for my psych minor. I did get out of one class because of taking AP Stats in high school though, so that was nice”

“Ah, I see. The dreaded required classes,” he says trying to look serious but failing miserably.

“Yup,” I grin and roll my eyes.

“But I’m really proud of you,” he repeats it as if I didn’t hear him the first time.

“Thank you.”

“Have you told anyone else?” He sounds curious now. “Or am I the first?”

“You’re the first,” I say shaking my head.

“So why aren’t you rushing me off the line to tell someone else?”

I try my best to look offended, “I would never do that. Besides, everyone else is busy.”

“Doing what?”

“Well, my mum, dad, and Jane are all at work, and my brother’s on a date. So they probably wouldn’t answer my call if I did try. I’ll just tell them later,” I shrug.

“Ooh! A date!” Harry says smirking. “Is she a nice girl? Or have you met her?”

“Matt’s date is actually a boy. And yes, he’s quite lovely. Though I would have murdered him if he wasn’t” I mutter the last part under my breath. I’m quite protective when it comes to my younger brother.

Harry chuckles, evidently amused by my violence in this matter, “Oh really. And how would you do that?”

“Simple,” I shrug. “It’d poison him and then get Jane to help me hide the body so the police wouldn’t figure me out.”

“And what makes you so sure Jane would help you?” he asks, still smiling. I’m not sure if he’s playing devil’s advocate or is just curious.

“Well, she’s my best friend, and that’s what best friends are for. Plus she loves Matt almost as much as I do so she would have helped me kill David anyway. That’s Matt’s boyfriend by the way,” I explain.

“I’ll give you that. You and Jane seem like you could be quite the pair of mischievous menaces if you want to be.” Harry nods. “What poison would you use anyway. There are lots of them.”

“Well, I’m taking a chemistry class next semester so I’d probably get some arsenic and smuggle it out of the lab. They have all sorts of poisons in there.”

Now he looks puzzled, “what exactly does arsenic do?”

“It causes death and, or coma,” I reply, switching into explanatory mode. “It’s generally considered a very painful way to die. There are probably nicer poisons too but that is one of the most famous.”

“Okay,” Harry smiles slightly, still a bit amused that we are having this conversation. “How do you know all of this if you weren’t planning on killing him in the first place. It’s an awful lot of knowledge for someone so innocent.” He winks at me.

I laugh, “I read detective novels. There’s a ton of murders in those.”

“What kind?” he asks.

“Mainly Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie,” I reply. I had gotten addicted to mysteries after my parents forcefully shoved me out of the teen literature section and told me to read some ‘real’ books. I still resent that statement, but I’m happy they did.

“I’ve read a couple of those too,” Harry says, and when I raise my eyebrows playfully at him, he looks indignant. “Hey I read too. Which ones have you read?”

“Well, _A Study in Scarlet_ , _The Hounds of Baskerville_ , _And Then There Were None,_ plus,” I wink at him. “ _The Mysterious Affair at Styles.”_

“You know in that one Styles is a place right,” he says, laughing.

“Of course I know, I have read it. I just thought it was a funny irony.”

He nods, and seems to blush slightly, but it’s probably a trick of the light, “It was. Those are good books. _And Then There Were None_ was kinda creepy.”

I nod, “It was. I just love mysteries. Often if I get bored of a normal book I’ll read the end and make it into a mystery, trying to figure out how everything happened.”

He laughs, “That sounds like something you would do.”

I shrug and laugh along with him. We continue to talk about various mysteries we’ve read. I spoil a few of my favourite for him, and he seems genuinely interested.

“Wow,” I mutter, glancing at my watch.

“What?” Harry asks.

“We’ve been talking for over an hour,” I say, looking back up at him. He runs his fingers through his hair, giving me tingles. God he looks so hot when he does that.

His voice snaps me out of my stupor, “Is that a long time?”

I nod, “the only other person I’ve ever talked on the phone, or on Skype for that long is Jane, and she’s my best friend.”

“Wow, I’m honored,” he laughs a little, and truthfully he does look a bit honored.

I smile, “well, you’re very easy to talk to.”

He smirks, “what can I say. It’s a gift.”

I roll my eyes and laugh at him, then look around at all the people rushing by in the food court. I wish he were here.

“I’ll be coming out there in a month for the VMA’s. It’s in New York. You should come.” he says.

Oh, I must have said it out loud. I blush, “you don’t have to invite me. I just thought it would be nice to see you again.”

He nods. “I’d love to see you, and there is a party there that you should come to. It would be fun. I could even pick you up and drive you up there if that’s a problem.”

“You’d drive all the way to New York for me?” I blush even more.

“Well, technically I won’t be driving, but it’s the thought that counts,” he winks at me.

I laugh, “I guess. But I’m still not sure.”

“Can you think about it?”

I nod, “Sure. I’ll talk to you about it later then.”

“Of course,” He winks at me. Then I hear someone else talking to them in that garbled voice of a person far away from the mic. Harry wrinkles his nose but nods. “I gotta go. Band stuff and all,” he sticks his tongue out.

“That’s fine,” but I stick my tongue out and wrinkle my nose too. “I’ll text you later.”

He laughs at my face and nods, “Can’t wait.”

“Pins and needles,” I giggle back, then I wave quickly back and forth before Harry hangs up and the screen goes blank. I close the computer and sit watching people flit back and forth.

I can’t believe Harry invited me to go to a party. My god. And I can’t stop myself from smiling when I think about it. Not that it means anything. Of course not, how could he be interested in someone like me. But it still would be really nice to see him again.

I want to accept but I still feel like I would be impinging. I’ll probably end up saying no. But he actually invited me. And I’m so happy that I don’t even care that I’m probably being looked at funny for smiling like a goon, and that I won’t be going anyway.

Stupid inability to accept extravagant gifts.


	10. Good To Be Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Andromeda goes back home to her family at the end of the term.

### Chapter 10: Good to be home

##### Andromeda

Finally. I’m done packing. Of course this will all stay in boxes for a week before getting unpacked in my dorm room for my sophomore year in college.

“Do you need any help?” Sarah asks, sticking her head through the doorway.

“Could you take that bag down to the car?” I nod to the one filled with my comforter and pillowcases.

“Sure,” she picks it up and walks out of the room. I pick up a box filled to the brim with my books and sling my messenger bag onto my shoulder. My car is loaded up, and for someone living somewhere it isn’t all that much. Everything that I have in here is all that I’m taking with me to college.

My aunt and uncle come out and hug me goodbye. I’ve gotten a ton closer to them ever since I’ve lived with them. But that’s to be expected. And I was already really close with them anyway.

Then I’m on the road, after I make a promise to come back for dinner once school starts up again.

It takes me an hour to go home and when I do I’m greeted with hugs again. Honest I don’t get what all the fuss is about because I saw them a week ago.

“Hi mum,” I say, hugging her and then my father, “Hi dad.”

My brother and his boyfriend are standing behind them, not really paying attention. Matt is engrossed in something that David is saying

“Thanks for the warm welcome kid,” I say, clapping my brother on the shoulder. Then I turn to David, “You keeping him out of trouble David?”

He snickers, “More like in trouble but not caught.”

I laugh, “Well, there’s something.”

My brother, Matt, and David have an interesting story. They met at the library, but not because of liking books. Matt actually hates them and was there because I had dragged him along when I went. David doesn’t mind books, but his mother had dragged him. They had bonded over their annoyance at being dragged places, traded numbers, and the rest, as they say, was history.

My phone buzzes in my pocket and when my parents turn around to help get my stuff out of the car I pull it out. Harry texts me _It is too hot here,_ in lieu of a greeting _._ I snort. It’s been around 70° Fahrenheit there or as Harry informs me 21° Celsius. Basically it’s beautiful, and he has the gall to complain.

 _How about 90_ ° _Fahrenheit you whiner._ I type back mocking him good-naturedly.

 _God, how do you survive?_ Is the quick response I get.

_I’m just special like that. Well, not really but you learn to live with it._

“Andi, come and help us unpack,” my dad says from the car, and then teases, “Just because you’re home now doesn’t mean that you can make us do everything.”

I stick my tongue out at him but go to help them take the stuff out of my car and put it into the laundry room of the house.

Harry has been texting me throughout this, I’ve gotten three texts that I haven’t been able to look at. When I get the chance I read through them: _But you are special._ And then, _In a good way of course._ And finally from a minute ago, _Well, I think you’re special anyway._

I blush. Harry Styles thinks I’m special.

“Who are you texting Andi?” David comes over to me and tries to look over my shoulder.

I quickly click my phone closed, not wanting him to read them. Still, I tell him so he and Matt won’t steal my phone to check, “Harry.”

“Who’s that?” David asks.

Matt comes over and wraps his arm around David’s waist, “that boy she met at the concert, right?” He looks at me for confirmation.

“Wait, the One Direction concert?” David asks, he’s obviously trying to put it all together. Matt hasn’t told him who Harry is, though he was one of the first people I told because he would actually find the bathroom incident funny.

I nod, blushing.

“So you met a guy named Harry at a concert where one of the singers is named Harry?” David laughs.

“Nope,” I shake my head, grinning. “I met the singer named Harry at his concert.”

“You met a celebrity, and you didn’t tell me?” David sounds extremely offended by this. To be fair to him he is one of my best friends ever since he and Matt started dating.

“I assumed Matt would tell you,” I shrug.

David glares at Matt, “you traitor.”

I let then argue and glare at each other playfully and type back a response to Harry: _Thanks. That means a lot to me._ And then quickly after that is sent, _What are you up to in the sweltering heat? ;)_

David tries to look over my shoulder, obviously done fighting with my brother. “What are you texting about?”

“He’s complaining about the heat right now. Though I think he’s just trying to mess with me,” I reply, hiding my phone from him.

It buzzes,  _Staying inside mainly. The boys are all going to get together to see a movie tonight. Niall and Louis are over right_

 _So are you all back in London?_ They all live in London when they aren’t on tour, but they’ve recently been visiting their family.

_Yup. Getting ready to go to the states._

_You’re leaving in eight days?_

My family all moves into the house, and I skillfully manage to avoid the doorway while carrying my backpack in one hand and my phone in the other.

_Yes, and I still have time to change the ticket to fly me out to Cincinnati. Have you made up your mind?_

I groan. Shot, I really want to go, but I can’t accept this.

“What’s with the groan?” Matt asks me.

My mom looks at me with concern, “is there something wrong Andi?”

I shake my head, and quickly shoot back a text to Harry, _Nope, still thinking._

“Who are you texting?” she asks.

I blush, “so you remember that concert that Alexis and Jane dragged me to at the beginning of the summer?” She nods. “And you remember how we got to meet the band because we won backstage passes?” I had conveniently left out the bathroom incident with telling the story to my parents. Matt is the lucky person in my family that knows that story.

“What does that have to do with it?” my dad asks, he never likes it when you stray off topic from a question. It’s my classic way of avoiding answers.

“One of the band members started texting me. Harry Styles,” I say, blushing even more.

Matt nods, “Personally I think Zayn is better but Harry is quite attractive.”

“Thanks kid,” I roll my eyes and my face heats up even more.

“What about Louis?” David says, he’s one of those gay guys that is actually a fan of the band. Of course his fan level was about what mine was when I went to the concert, so it isn’t that much.

“He’s got a very nice a-, butt,” Matt stops himself from cursing in front of my parents. “But he’s too rambunctious,” he shrugs.

“I’m rambunctious,” David tries to sound offended, but doesn’t really accomplish it.

Matt grabs his hand, “and I never thought I would like you, but here we are.”

“And I never thought I could handle being quiet for long periods of time,” David smiles.

Then interrupting the lovely moment, they start to shove each other back and forth. Such is the normal existence of my brother and his boyfriend. They tease each other so much that sometimes the rest of us wonder if they really are dating. And then they kiss and we know for sure.

“So the groan was?” my mother asks, ignoring them.

I’m about to reply with my phone buzzes again. This time it’s Jane. _OH MY GOD NIALL JUST ASKED ME AND ALEXIS TO COME TO NEW YORK WITH THEM!!!!!_

I blink at that for a second, and then look up at my parents, “give me a minute. I’ve got to deal with something first.”

 _WHAT?!_ I reply.

In about three seconds Jane types back. _OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD ANDI ANDI ANDI I AM SCREAMING AND JUMPING UP AND DOWN OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD I CAN’T I CAN’T I LITERALLY CANNOT ANDI I AM SO NOT ABLE TO HANDLE THIS OH MY GOD HELP._

And then in the next text that comes a few seconds after that. _AND NIALL SAYS THAT HARRY ASKED YOU TOO AND YOU SAID YOU WERENT SURE HOW COULD YOU NOT SAY YES ANDI THIS IS HARRY STYLES YOU DON’T SAY NO TO HARRY STYLES_

I am really tempted to say that I should say no if he wants to rape me or murder me or something, but Jane is never really amused with my attempts to play devil’s advocate, and anyway Harry would never do that.

So instead I reply, _I didn’t want to intrude. I mean he invited me to this party there and I wouldn’t fit in and he would hate me at the end of it because I would just be a bother._

 _ANDROMEDA JOSEPHINE DON’T YOU EVER SAY THAT AGAIN. HE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE YOU THERE. HE WOULDN’T HAVE ASKED YOU IF HE DIDN’T._ I sigh, Jane only uses my middle name when she really wants to get a point across.

_Thanks dear. You really think so?_

_YES OF COURSE_

_OH MY GOD SHOULD I SAY YES, I WANT TO SAY YES. ARE YOU GUYS GOING?_

_DUH, DO YOU THINK I WOULD MISS THIS?! EVEN MORE DO YOU THINK ALEXIS WOULD MISS THIS?!?!?! YEAH ABSOLUTELY NOT AND YOU SHOULD SAY YES_

_True... okay I will_

_GOOD._

_OH MY GOD WE’RE GOING TO NEW YORK WITH ONE DIRECTION_. I type back to her and then click on Harry’s name in my phone. He hadn’t texted me since I said I was still thinking, and that made me very suspicious of him. _Is the offer still open for me to go?_ I ask him.

Almost immediately he texts back. _Of course! Are you going to come?_

_Yeah, I think it would be fun._

_YAY! You’ll have a blast. I know you will! And we’ll get to do all sorts of stuff together and you can come to the party so it will be more than just bearable this year and oh my god we’ll have so much fun!_

_I’m glad you’re excited._ I think for a second and then add, _And don’t think I didn’t know you had something to do with Niall inviting Alexis and Jane._

I can picture him scoffing, _Who me? I’m entirely innocent._

 _Of course you are Styles,_ I reply before going back and looking at Jane’s text.

 _I KNOW THIS IS SO INCREDIBLE I JUST CANT EVEN I LITERALLY CANNOT EVEN I JUST DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF OH MY GOD NEW YORK WITH ONE DIRECTION PUNCH ME IN THE FACE WHAT IS MY LIFE._ My best friend is so utterly insane most of the time, especially when it comes to stuff like this.

_I KNOW!! HAVE YOU TOLD ALEXIS?_

_YES BUT SHE HASN’T REPLIED. I’M GOING TO GO OVER THERE AND TELL HER._ Ah, the benefits of going to the same school. I let her do her thing, and look back at Harry’s text.

_Well, I might have had something to do with it, but Niall really wanted to anyway. You know he has a crush on Jane._

_I know. Just have to tell my parents that I’m to go, what are the dates?_ I type back.

_It’s the first weekend in September. Do you have class that Friday?_

_Nope. And not Monday either because of labor day._

_Awesome, but you know you don’t have to ask them for permission, you are a sophomore in college._

_I know, I just need to let them know why I won’t be home that weekend._

_Ah, I see. Well tell me when you’re done talking to them._

I look back up and find that my family has migrated to the kitchen. My mum is working on her laptop, as usual, my dad is cooking, and my brother and his boyfriend are sitting on the window seat laughing at something.

“So, I have a question,” I say, getting all my family’s attention.

“Yes?” my mum says.

“Well, it’s more of a statement. I’m going to go to New York over Labor Day weekend with Alexis and Jane.”

“Okay. Any reason for the trip?” my dad says.

“Well, Harry is there for the VMAs and he and the rest of the band invited us to go with him,” I say, ringing my hands half out of nerves and have out of embarrassment.

David stands up, “You get to go to the VMAs?” he nearly shouts.

I shake my head, “no, I’m just going to hang out with them. I’m not actually going to that.” Something tells me that that would not go over well with the rest of the world.

“Aw man,” David says.

My dad shrugs “Have fun. Are you going to be taking the car?”

“Don’t think so. Harry said that he was going to drive.” I revise that statement when I see the look of horror and fear on my father’s face. “He won’t actually be driving. The security will, like the drivers that they hire for the band. This is their job.”

My dad nods, relieved, “Okay, that’s fine.”

I laugh, “Yeah, I wouldn’t let Harry drive either. His license is for driving in England, on the other side of the road.”

“Makes sense,” Matt says, and then grins. “Andi has a boyfriend.”

I blush and protest, “he’s not my boyfriend.”

“Of course he isn’t,” David jokes.

I roll my eyes. My family is completely crazy.

 _It’s a go ;)_ I text Harry, and then my family starts bugging me for all the details about my life for the past two weeks. Oh well, nothings new there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I plan to update as often as I can :)  
> Please comment and tell me what you think of the story so far.  
> Thanks


	11. Of Pillows and Planes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry takes Andromeda on a plane ride to New York, and Louis tags along.

### Chapter 11: Of Pillows and Planes

##### Andromeda

"This isn't the way to get to New York," I tell Harry.

We're currently in the car, driving up to New York. Louis hitched a ride too, saying he wanted to get to know the person who as been stealing his Harry away over text. After I apologized profusely he laughed and said that he was joking, though it was true.

"Isn't it?" Harry asks, trying to play dumb. He may not be from here but I'm pretty sure he's aware that to get to New York from Ohio you go east, not south.

"No, it isn't. We should be going roughly that way," I point to where New York would be, or right about where I think that would be.

"I think we're going the right way," Harry says. "What do you think Lou?"

Louis grins from the front seat, "well, considering we're not actually driving there-"

"You said we were driving. I agreed to driving," I cut him off, looking at Harry.

He looks over at Louis, "thanks for ruining the surprise mate."

"You're welcome," Louis smirks.

"No, we are driving. I am not costing you any more money than I already have," I cross my arms and sit back in the seat.

"We already bought the tickets," Harry says, putting his hand on my arm.

I shrug him off, unhappy that he lied to me and went behind my back. God, I sound like I actually have some claim over what Harry Styles does. As if. I'm still not very happy they are going to end up dragging me on a plane without me being ready for it. At least I pack light so I don't have to check my bag.

But honestly, it's quite flattering. I mean, the kid invited me to New York with him and then paid for a plane ticket when a car ride would have been much cheaper. So, I guess I'm not really mad at him. I still am not fond of how he went behind my back about it, but I am flattered.

When we get off the interstate to the exit I clearly recognize I finally speak up again, "you know you could have just gone to the Dayton airport. It's much closer to Oxford."

"And this is why we should have consulted her Harry. She's so much more knowledgeable about these things than we are," Louis interjects.

"I would be, I have lived here for my whole life," I mutter, looking sideways at Harry.

He sighs, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. But you wouldn't have agreed anyway, and I thought it would be better to fly."

"It's fine," I roll my eyes. "You're forgiven."

"Yay," he squeals, a bit like a five-year-old and wraps me in a giant, sideways, bear hug.

I hug him back, and we sit like that for a bit longer than is normal before Harry lets go and sits up, grinning.

"Now that you have made up," Louis says. "I think it's time for us to go."

"You have been on a plane Andromeda, right?" Harry says, after waiting for the driver to open the door.

I roll my eyes again, "yes, of course I have."

We climb out of the car and all say thank you to the driver.

"How was I supposed to know that?" Harry defends.

I laugh, "I've talked to you about how I've been to Europe with my family. I believe the first time I was on a plane was when I was four months."

"Where would you take a four month old?" Louis asks curious.

"Colorado to visit my grandmother," I explain. "It was probably easier on my parents then being stuck in the car with a baby for three days."

"Ah, that makes sense," Louis says.

I turn to look at Harry who is taking both his bag and mine from the driver.

"You don't have to do that, you know. I can carry it myself," I tell him, smiling.

"I know. I want to. Besides we aren't carrying it far," he replies.

"I'm carrying mine on. It should be small enough."

"Alright. Is this all you have?" Harry says, still not giving my bag up to me.

I nod. "We're only going for a few days."

"Light packer she is," Louis mutters to Harry. He grins and I elbow Louis in the arm. "What?" he asks defensive. "It's a complement."

"Of course it is," I roll my eyes and grin at them.

We go through security with little issue. The only main hold up we get is from fans, both who want to know who the heck I am, and if they can get a picture. The second question is always more pressing, and for the first Harry always says that I'm their friend, though he never says my name.

Before long we're sitting in the boarding area getting ready to go on the flight. Harry is hiding behind a magazine and Louis is talking to me about my family.

"So, you have two brothers?" he asks, referring to Matt and David, who he met earlier.

I shake my head and laugh, "only one, but the other one might as well be, he's around our house enough. Matt's my brother, the tall kid with the beanie. And David is his boyfriend."

"The shorter blonde kid?" Louis clarifies.

I laugh, because David isn't short, he's actually about 5'11" but compared to Matt, who is 6'4", he's short. Of course that makes me a midget, but I'm used to it.

"Yeah, that's David."

"He seems like a good kid," Louis nods. "Both of them do. But I like David better."

"That's just because you were his favourite," I tease him.

Louis shrugs, "what can I say. I'm likable."

"Of course you are Lou," Harry says, slinging his arm around Louis shoulders.

Just then the intercom comes on, announcing that our flight will now begin boarding for first class.

I look at the two boys but they make no move to get up. Odd, I would have bet money they would have bought first class seats, even if they stuck me back in economy.

"Why aren't you guys getting up?" I ask, thinking they might have not heard the flight attendant.

"Oh," Harry looks at me. "I got economy seats."

"Really," I say, raising my eyebrows.

Louis nods, "Harry figured we'd have a hard enough time convincing you to get on the plane with economy seats, that you would flat out refused with first class."

"Hmm?" I look at Harry for confirmation.

He blushes, "Yeah."

"I actually figured that you guys would dump me back in economy and take the first class seats," I admit. The fact that they didn't makes me smile.

Harry chuckles. "We'd never do that," He declares as he stands up. "Now. They're going to call us in a second. Do you wanna get in line?"

"Sure," Louis waggles his eyebrows.

Harry rolls his eyes, "I was asking our guest."

"I know you were Harry dear," Louis claps him on the back and moves to get his bag from the seat next to me.

"You coming?" Harry asks and holds out his hand to me. I grab it, trying to ignore the tingling that occurs when I do.

The flight attendant calls for the boarding of group two, causing more people to rise and take their place in the cue.

"Come on kiddies," Louis says, grinning at the two of us.

I still have a hold of Harry's hand, which I drop the second I notice it. I don't want him getting the wrong, or right, idea and then not talking to me again. That would be bad.

We walk up to the boarding area and Harry hands me my ticket just as I pull out my drivers license. I can never remember if I need and ID for domestic flights.

The lady looks at my name on the ID, and then the one on the ticket, smiling. "Andromeda is a pretty name."

"Thanks," I say blushing. I'm not entirely sure how Harry got all the information he needed for my plane ticket, but knowing him he probably got Niall to ask Jane for it.

"You're welcome," she says grinning. "Have a nice flight."

I smile at her and go through the turn stall. The two boys are just ahead of me and I skip to catch up with them. Harry is still carrying my bag, though I try to grab it from him several times.

"You never told me how you got my personal information," I tell him.

He shrugs, "same way I got your phone number. You had to put it all down on those forms that you had to sign to go backstage remember."

"Ah," I nod. "That makes sense."

"How'd you think he got it?" Louis asks, sliding into step with us.

"I thought he might had asked Jane for it," I shrug. Louis lets me pass into the plane before him but cuts Harry off, almost out of habit.

Harry sticks his head around Louis to ask, "Would she have given it to me?"

I smile at the flight attendant that greats us and then turn back to Harry, "Probably. You would have to explain what you were going to do with it, but she probably would."

They both laugh, and we find our seats pretty quickly. They are right in the front so you get the extra leg room without paying for the first class seats. I plop down into the window seat, with Louis taking the one right next to me, as Harry puts my bag up into the overhead bin.

The muttering going on in the plane is actually quite hilarious. Yes, these are Harry and Louis from One Direction. They are sweet boys. Now stop gossiping about it and either get an autograph or don't.

"Are they bothering you?" a fluttery flight attendant asks us, though it's mainly directed at Harry who has just sat down in the aisle seat.

"They're fine," Harry smiles at her, "thank you for asking though."

She puts her hand on his arm for much longer than is necessary, and to be honest I'm a bit jealous. But Harry doesn't really seem to notice it.

The pilot comes on the intercom to tell us we're taking off, and for all of us to make sure everything is stowed properly and to buckle our seat belts.

About thirty minutes into the flight Louis starts complaining, leaning over top of me to look out the window. Harry tries to pull him back a couple of times but he just keeps doing it.

Eventually I get a bit tired of the back and forth. "Louis, would you like to have the window seat?"

He nods, a bit sheepish looking. Though there is a smirk hiding somewhere, I can just tell.

I laugh and unbuckle my seatbelt. "Trade up then."

We switch seats without much issue, and Louis winks at Harry for some reason before taking his seat and looking out the window.

"Sorry about that," Harry says. "He's a bit high maintenance sometimes."

"I can hear you Harold," Louis interjects, not actually looking at either of us.

"You act like a little kid sometimes is all I'm saying," Harry amends, laughing slightly.

I laugh, "like you don't."

He chuckles, and then cocks his head, "hey."

I laugh even harder at that, just because the look of playful offense on his face is so adorably hilarious.

He sticks his tongue out at me, but soon is laughing with me. We talk about random stuff for about thirty more minutes before I start to yawn.

"You should sleep. The party that I want you to go to is tonight and I want to show you around New York before that," Harry tells me.

I grin at him sleepily. No matter how awake I am when I get on a plane or in a car that I'm not driving I get tired. It's something about traveling I guess. Now when I'm driving I'm wide-awake, but that might be because of the possibility of crashing and dying if I fall asleep. But any other travel and I'm out about an hour into the trip.

"You don't mind?" I ask, just to make sure. I don't want to be rude or anything.

He smiles at me, "of course not. Want you to be well rested for any adventures that might happen later tonight."

I giggle and close my eyes, letting my head flop back onto the headrest. It only takes me five minutes to fall asleep.

I wake up to a fairly pleasant weight on my head; hair tickling my forehead that can't be mine because I haven't had bangs since the sixth grade and the pilot informing us that we will be landing in about thirty minutes.

Sometime while I was asleep my head had fallen onto Harry's shoulder, and I had burrowed into his arm like I would do with a pillow in my bed at home.

My face heats up, and I try to move away from him discreetly but he groans in his sleep. The position makes me feel a bit better. He had fallen asleep after I had moved, his head resting on mine. That would be why there was currently wisps of brown curly hair just above my eye line.

Louis looks over and winks at me, causing me to blush even more than before.

"You don't have to wake him up until we land if you don't want to," Louis informs me with a smirk. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't set this whole thing up, though I'm unsure about why he would want to do that. It's not like Harry likes me.

But the riddles of Louis Tomlinson's mind get pushed from my mind as Harry shifts slightly, almost nuzzling the top of my head.

I smile and sigh, closing my eyes again, and begin to slip in and out of sleep. Harry is quite warm and comfortable. Although normally I dislike having someone lay their head on top of mine for long periods of time, with Harry it actually is pleasant. It must have something to do with the way we fit together while we were sleeping.

"They're quite adorable," I hear the flight attendant from before say above my head.

"They are aren't they," Louis says, a bit of pride in his voice for some reason. "They're both going to hate me for this, but it's totally worth it."

"Aren't they together," I can hear the confusion in her voice, because I refuse to open my eyes and peak. I don't want them to stop talking on my account.

"Not at the moment no. But I have plans," honestly Louis sounds like an evil mastermind sometimes. He could probably have been that if he hadn't gotten into the music industry.

"Ah," she sounds like she's going to say something more, but Harry begins to wake up.

I don't think he expected or planned on being in this situation either, because about three seconds after he starts to stir he sits bolt upright.

I moan and open my eyes, looking up at him. My head had slipped a bit down his arm from him sitting up and I glare at him.

"It's time to get up you two," Louis says. The flight attendant he had been talking to when I pretended to be asleep has vanished.

Harry smiles down at me, "you have a good nap?"

I sit up and nod, "sorry about laying on you though."

He laughs, "It's fine. I didn't mind. Don't think I make a very good pillow."

"You were a fine pillow," I mutter, blushing.

Louis helps me out, leaning over and poking Harry in the knee, "Andromeda must have been a good pillow as well, you were sound asleep on top of her."

I blush a bit more but it's nothing compared to Harry, who has turned a brilliant shade of red. He starts to sputter out an apology but I put a hand on his arm.

"It's fine. I was using you as a pillow. I don't mind returning the favour."

"Cause that's what it was," Louis mutters, so low I can barely hear him. I don't think Harry caught it, but I blush just the same.

"So you ready to see New York?" Harry asks me, mercifully changing the subject.

I nod, grinning. "I'm excited."

"Have you been here before?" Louis asks, as I had already explained this to Harry.

"I came here for college visits the summer between my junior and senior years of high school. But we didn't do much sightseeing. So I excited for that part of it."

We talk about the various things that we could do in New York, and before long the plane is landed and we're allowed to disembark, or as Louis informed me, deplane. I'm not entirely sure if I believe him, but I think I've heard that term before, so who knows.

Harry goes off to call the security team for a ride and Louis turns to me, his phone is his hand. He shows me a picture of me and Harry sleeping, almost curled into each other, on the plane.

"Would you have a problem if I posted this on twitter?" he asks, grinning slightly.

I'm touched that he would ask before doing something that might invade my privacy. These boys really are as sweet as Jane and Alexis had told me before we met them.

"I'd prefer if you didn't," I reply, blushing a little. That seems like something I've been doing a lot today, and probably something I'm going to be continuing to do a lot over this weekend.

He shrugs, "hey, it was worth a shot. Do you want me to send it to you?"

I nod, "sure. I don't think Jane and Alexis would believe me if I didn't have some form of proof."

Louis laughs and hands me his phone to put my number into, I give it back to him just as Harry comes back.

"Ready to go explore New York Andromeda?" he asks, extremely chipper with a hundred-watt smile on his face.

"Definitely," I grin back at him.

He holds out his arm and I loop mine through it. Together we go off like that through the airport to where the boy's security is waiting to take us to the hotel. Louis is behind us, chuckling to himself, and taking pictures.

I'll have to get him to send me those later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!  
> Just wanted to remind you to comment. Or give kudos :)  
> Thanks for reading this!


	12. Party Blues and Deals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Andromeda, Jane and Alexis go to the party with the boys but Andromeda is sad and thinks that Harry doesn't like her

### Chapter 12: Party Blues and Deals

##### Andromeda

Trying not to cause a lot of commotion I sit down at a table in the corner with my cup of Sprite. This was the party that Harry and the rest of the boys had invited Jane, Alexis, and me too in New York.

Right after we had gotten to the party Harry had been dragged away by some important looking person that I didn't recognize, and I hadn't talked to him since. Liam had made a beeline for the bar, followed by several of the other boys.

Alexis was off on the dance floor, but Jane and I hadn't felt like dancing much, though for very different reasons. I was moping because my crush wasn't talking to me, and she wanted to talk to Niall.

Normally, we would be in this boat together, the single boat that is. And would be laughing and having the time of our lives without boys. It was a running joke with us that where ever we went Alexis could always pick up boys and neither Jane nor I could.

But she has Niall tonight. They are sitting extremely close to each other, laughing and talking about who knows what.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm extremely happy for her. She and Niall are perfect for each other. And I'm not afraid he'll take her away because she has a crush on him, and I'm her best friend. They are two different leagues.

No, I'm sitting in a corner brooding because I'm jealous of their relationship, though I probably can't call it that yet. I'm jealous because I wish I had her luck, to like someone and have them like you back.

Looking away from them I scan the room for the subject of my affection, Harry. He is over at the bar chatting with two extremely pretty girls. It's painfully obvious that he doesn't like me like I like him. As a friend maybe, but as a girlfriend, never.

Before I can do anything though Louis comes over dragging Zayn and they both slide into the seats.

"What you doing?" Louis asks me.

I shrug, "people watching."

"Anyone interesting?" he asks, raising his eyebrows and looking out at the crowd. "Aside from Zayn and me here, of course."

"I've been watching Niall and Jane," I say, not willing to admit to them that I've actually been mainly watching Harry.

"They are adorable aren't they," Louis nods approving. "Though funny story, we actually thought he had a crush on you for a while."

I look at them with a 'what are you talking about?' look, "Huh?"

Zayn nods, "well when Harry was getting your number none of us actually used your name because we all assumed that it was you we were talking about."

"And why was that?" I ask, curious now.

Zayn looks down, like its not something he was supposed to tell me. No clue why it would be a secret, but I don't pretend to understand these boys.

"Oh, cause you were the one who hit him in the head with the door," Louis says cheekily. He knows exactly what he's doing, embarrassing me.

"While looking for the bathroom," Zayn laughs.

I groan and put my head in my hands, "I'm never going to live that down, am I?"

"Nope," Louis says, putting his hand on my back.

"So," I try to change the subject. "What about that made you think Niall would have a crush on me?"

"He got all jealous when we were talking about Harry getting your number. But he thought we were talking about Jane and not you," Zayn explains.

Louis starts playing with my hair. Not the cute kind of playing that couples do sometimes, but the kind that friends do when they want to bug the other person. He starts flipping most of my hair on top of my head.

"Oi!" I say, slapping his hand away. "Stop it."

He flips it again.

"Funny, I thought Harry would come over here at some point," Zayn mutters, almost to himself.

I shrug and try not to look hurt by that. "Maybe he got distracted by all the pretty girls around here."

"You're the prettiest," Zayn says.

Louis punches him in the shoulder, "don't let your girlfriend hear you say that."

I laugh. "Where is she?"

"Oh, she'll be here in a bit," He blushes. It's obvious that he is quite enamored with her. And that in itself is adorable.

"But Zayn is right, you are by far one of the prettiest girls here," Louis says grinning at me. "In the most platonic way."

I wink at him, "of course."

"That's a big word Louis," Zayn teases him.

He smacks him on the side of the head, and then looks at me, "I'm going to go dance. You coming?"

I shake my head. "Naw, I think I'll stay here."

"Suit yourself," he says shrugging. "Zayn?"

"Just a second."

Louis gets up and saunters off to the dance floor and I turn to look at Zayn. "So what's up?"

Zayn looks confused, "what do you mean?"

"You wouldn't have stayed if you didn't want to talk about something. So what's up?" I say, reasoning my way through his behavior.

"You should go over there and talk to him," Zayn says, pointing at Harry, who has now moved on to talking with another gorgeous girl.

I shake my head, "he wouldn't want me to."

"He would," Zayn shakes his head at my answer, and then puts a hand on my arm. "Just have fun okay?"

I smile and nod at him. These boys are all such sweethearts. I don't understand how anyone could dislike them. They are some of the nicest people I've ever met.

Zayn gets up and follows the path that Louis took to the dance floor.

As for me, I sigh and look back at my best friend being her lucky self. Niall is looking at her like she's the sun and moon and stars as she animatedly tells him a story, laughing and joking together. It makes me sick how adorable they are, in the best way possible of course.

Harry has moved on again to another pretty girl and her friend. She lays her hand on his arm and he smiles at her, using his dimples for full effect.

Gritting my teeth I get up. I can't watch him flirt with some unknown people, especially when my best friend is so dang lucky and happy with Niall.

I make my way over to the door and walk outside, sitting down on the curb to the side of the entrance. Slowly I feel the tears and emotion start to build inside of me. I hate not feeling that I'm wanted by boys. I used to feel like I was unwanted by everyone. But due to Jane and Alexis's influence it's now limited to being unwanted by boys, which is an improvement.

"Andromeda?" a male voice I instantly recognize calls.

I should just let him go, but I don't have that much control, I do really want to talk to him, even if I'm jealous that I'll never have him, "Over here Harry."

He walks over and sits on the curb next to me, "What's up? Why'd you leave?"

I try to be stoic, I really do. But the second I look into those beautiful green eyes I know I can't outright lie to him. "Didn't feel good I guess."

He puts his arm around my shoulder, not saying anything.

"Did Jane make you come check on me or something?" I ask, looking at him sideways.

"No," he looks at me confused.

"What about Louis or Zayn?" I press, not convinced he would come out here on his own.

He looks slightly annoyed but still very confused. "No. Why?"

"Because people like you don't normally do this with me," I gesture around me, referring to him comforting me for some unknown emotional problem.

"Like celebrities?" he asks, even more confused.

I roll my eyes, "no, boys."

"Boys? What do you mean?"

I look down at the cement, "I mean exactly what it sounds like. Boys don't seem to like being around me."

"The band likes you," he says, still not getting it.

"But you guys are always around other girls. It's not the same thing," I sigh.

"What is different about it?"

"It's okay, you wouldn't understand anyway," I say, looking up at him with a sad expression.

"Why wouldn't I understand?" he rubs his hand up and down my arm.

"You've never been unwanted by the opposite gender." This really isn't helping me get cheered up.

He looks at me, "I've been rejected and dumped before."

"That's not what I meant," I say exasperated. "Okay, I'll ask you a question to see if you might understand. When was your first kiss?"

The look on his face is something like  _how is this relevant_ , but he answers the question anyway, "When I was eleven."

Wow, that's really early. I mean I expected it to be early but not that early.

My amazement and slight disbelief must have shown on my face because Harry looks kinda ticked at me, "Why when was your first kiss?"

I twirl my hair on my finger. This was a bit embarrassing now. I had planned to tell him, but I hadn't expected him to have been kissed when he wasn't a teenager yet. I'm pretty sure I hadn't even developed my first crush when I was eleven.

"I've never been kissed," I whisper, so low I can barely hear the words come out of my mouth.

But he does, "What? You've never been kissed?" he asks me, dumbfounded. "Did you like tell them no or something?"

I glare at him, "No, no one has ever wanted to kiss me. You really think I would tell someone no? I'm nineteen, a sophomore in college, and I've never been kissed. Everyone I know has been kissed, even some people who are way younger than I am. Do you even know how embarrassing that is? How unwanted it makes you feel?"

"No, I guess I don't," he says quietly. "But it doesn't mean that you're unwanted."

Tears start to leak out of my eyes, "Maybe not, but it's a hell of a good sign."

"You are." He insists, "Hey look at me." I do as he asks, feeling the pang of longing when I look at his face. "You are wanted. There are tons of boys in there that would be happy to dance with or talk to you. They just don't think you want to."

"What makes them think that?" I ask, confused.

"Because you like to sit by yourself, and they notice it," his eyes are looking at my face with a look I can't quite place.

"I'm just scared," I whisper, afraid to even admit that to him.

He wraps his other arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his chest. "I'll make you a deal." He whispers in my ear.

"What is it?" I breathe into his shirt.

"You can hang out with me, and I'll introduce you to everyone if you promise to not slink back to that corner table if you get scared."

I freeze. He's actually proposing I hang out with him? Like for real?

"Please, for me?" He begs, eyes staring into mine.

"Okay," I nod, still shocked. "I can do that I think."

He removes his arms from around me and stands up, offering me his hand. I take it and he pulls me up. Together we walk back into the party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, to my readers I'm going to do my best to update this weekly. It probably won't be on the same day every week, but I'm unorganized and forgetful, so please bear with me.  
> I will try to update it sometime weekly though :)  
> Thank you to everyone that's reading!  
> Please leave comments or kudos! (I won't bite I promise ;))


	13. Adorable Drunkenness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the party Andromeda gets drunk and Harry has to deal with her and his feelings toward her.

### Chapter 13: Adorable Drunkenness

##### Harry

Andromeda seems to be having a much better time now than she was when she went outside. I still don’t understand why she thinks she’s unwanted. I mean I know my intentions weren’t exactly a flashing sign, but I didn’t think I was that subtle. Or at least everyone tells me I’m not.

Either way, over the course of an hour I’ve managed to loose her. Zayn and Liam took her away at some point to show her something and I haven’t seen her since

“Have you seen Andromeda mate?” I ask Louis.

He smirks, “Have you lost your girlfriend Harold?”

I roll my eyes at Louis and ask again, “Where is she?”

He shrugs, “I saw her with Zayn and Liam. She was having a bit of a freak out moment because they tired to drag her into the center of the crowd.”

“So where’d she go after that?” As much as I love Louis, his roundabout answers are getting annoying.

“They got her a drink, I believe, to help her nerves,” Louis says.

“She’s not legal here,” I protest.

“Neither are you, and that never stopped you before,” Louis points out.

“Touché.”

He nods to the bar, “check over there mate.”

I walk over to the bar, weaving in and out of people. Soon I spot Andromeda sitting at the bar laughing with some stranger. She’s much more social now than when she left.

“Hi Andromeda,” I say walking up next to her.

She giggles and rests her head on my chest even though I’m standing about a foot away from her. “Hi Harry.”

The guy she was talking to looks from me to her with a look of disappointment. That’s right mate. She’s mine. Well not really, but I’m the only one who gets to try for her in here.

I step into her and put one around her shoulder, holding the other out to the man in an attempt to be civil.

“Hello,” I say.

He nods, takes my hand, and then leaves without a word. This offends Andromeda, who glares daggers at his back.

“That was mean,” she says savagely before hiccupping and giggling again. Then she reaches for her glass and takes a sip.

“What’s in that darling?” I ask, and then mentally slap myself. I can’t go giving her pet names yet. I don’t even know if she fancies me.

But she doesn’t seem to notice, so I decide to keep using them. She looks down at the glass with a pleasantly puzzled look, “I don’t know. Liam got it for me.”

Well, that means it’s probably something guaranteed to get her smashed. I don’t know what’s in it, but she won’t feel too good in the morning.

She takes another sip of the mystery drink, “Harry are you mad at me?” She sounds like she’s already drunk, or how I assume she would sound. Her words are slurring and she sounds a bit like a five-year old.

I shake my head and wrap my other arm around her, brushing her hair away from her face, “Why would I be mad at you darling?”

The look of puppy dog sad look she gives me should be criminal, “Because I’m making you interact with me here. And then I got drunk.”

“I won’t get mad at you for getting drunk, as I’ve been on the wrong side of Liam’s drinks before. And why would I not want to spend time with you? I did invite you.” It hurts me that she thinks I wouldn’t want to spend time with her.

“But,” she flounders, then looks back up at me. “You didn’t want to talk to me before?” Her tone has turned almost accusing, in a five-year old way.

I shake my head and wrap my other arm around her, brushing her hair away from her face, “Why would I be mad at you darling?”

The look of puppy dog sad look she gives me should be criminal, “Because I’m making you interact with me here. And then I got drunk.”

“I won’t get mad at you for getting drunk, as I’ve been on the wrong side of Liam’s drinks before. And why would I not want to spend time with you? I did invite you.” It hurts me that she thinks I wouldn’t want to spend time with her.

“But,” she flounders, then looks back up at me. “You didn’t want to talk to me before.” Her tone has turned almost accusing, in a five-year old way.

I shake my head, “Andromeda, I didn’t think you wanted to talk to me. You were just sitting by yourself. And when I tried to go over there I kept getting cornered.”

"Oh,” she says and glares at her drink as if this is somehow its fault.

Running my fingers through her hair I pull out the ponytail so I can play with it better.

She giggles, “Harry?”

“Yes darling?” I say, reveling in the fact that I can actually call her that right now. It’s only because she’s drunk I’m sure though. She probably wouldn’t allow it if she was sober.

“I wanna dance, but I can’t dance properly,” she states, looking forlornly at the dance floor.

“Then go dance, it’s not like anyone will care,” I tell her.

She stands up, “okay.” I still have her hair band so her hair streams behind her as she skips off.

Now Andromeda’s dancing isn’t conventional, especially for a club. Which is actually a good thing for me, cause if she was grinding on someone else I’d definitely loose it, and probably punch the kid.

As it is she reminds me of Luna Lovegood, with a bit more bounce and a bit less flailing. But my god is she fit. I close my eyes and try to picture something else to stop the blood flow downward. Not that getting hard in a club would be a bad thing, or that this is the first time it’s happened. I just do stupid things when it does, and I don’t really want to do something that will cause me to loose Andromeda all together.

Like grabbing her and having my way with her.

No, no, I’m not going there.

Come on Harry, think of something else. Like dead puppies.

“Why do you look constipated mate?” Liam asks, coming up next to me.

I glare at him, “I do not look constipated. And why did you give Andromeda that drink? She didn’t need that.”

Liam shrugs, unaffected by my glare, probably because if he wanted to he could totally take me in a fight. Not that I think he will or anything. “She needed to loosen up a bit. And it worked,” he gestures out onto the dance floor. “Besides a little hangover never hurt anyone.”

I roll my eyes, “your drinks don’t give ‘little’ hangovers Liam.”

He chuckles, “probably true. You should go out and dance with her.”

I look back at her. She’s just beautiful. Extremely fit, but beautiful as well. Like the kind of beautiful that stays with you for your life. But Liam does make a very good suggestion and so I walk out onto the dance floor with her and grab her hand.

“Hallo,” she says giggling.

“Andromeda, may I have this dance,” I joke in complete seriousness. She latches herself onto me and just sways back and forth, a dance style that doesn’t go with the music at all. Not that I mind.

“Harry,” she mumbles in my ear. “Am I pretty?”

I look at her. She’s got this sad look, like she’s sure I’ll say no. “Of course you’re pretty. You’re gorgeous,” I tell her.

She buries her face in my shoulder. “You’re just saying that.”

“No I’m not darling. It’s just the truth.”

Her hair hits my face as she shakes my head.

“Andromeda. You are extremely attractive. I don’t want to heard you say that you aren’t okay?” I take her face in my hands and make her look at me.

She nods sheepishly, like a small child that’s been caught doing something bad.

We go back to swaying to the music, her head tucked in the space between my head and my shoulder. I really like having her like this, in my arms. It just feels right.

God, I sound so cheesy saying that. I’m turning into a girl.

After about fifteen minutes Andromeda mutters into my ear, “Harry. I don’t feel so well.”

I hold back a chuckle. Even though I don’t want her to feel bad, I know what she’s going through. But it’s kinda funny how much of a lightweight she is. I mean Liam’s drinks are potent and get you drunk pretty easily, but normally it takes about three or four of them to get me drunk enough to want to throw up.

“Come on,” I unwrap myself from her, but keep one arm around her waist and lead her outside. “Some air should help.”

“Thanks Harry, you’re the best,” she says, before kneeling in the grass.

I rub her back, “You’re not bad yourself.”

She giggles and then breathes in deeply. “I’m not sure if I feel any better, but can we stay out here a bit longer.”

I kiss her forehead, “of course darling.”

Smiling at me she curls into my side, “you can go back in if you want.”

“I’m good,” I say drawing her closer to me. I really want to kiss her, but I don’t think that would be a good idea right now. She might think I was just taking advantage of her. And I don’t want to do that.

We stay outside for a while and talk about the city before Andromeda falls asleep in my arms.

“Hey,” Louis slurs, as he walks over to us from the door.

“Shh,” I put my finger to my lips and gesture to Andromeda.

“Oh, sorry,” he whispers. “I was going to ask you how it was going, but it obviously is going well.”

I roll my eyes and smile. “Is it time to go?”

He shrugs, “not sure. I was just wondering where you two were. The rest of us will probably be here for another two hours, but you can leave whenever.”

“Okay,” I nod, and Andromeda stirs against me but then goes back to sleep.

“What got her so tuckered out?” Louis asks.

“Alcohol I think. This is the first time she’s been drunk and she’s a bit of a lightweight, Liam’s drinks didn’t help either,” I explain.

Louis winces, “poor girl. I bet she’s glad you were there to help her out.”

“I hope so.”

“She is,” Louis repeats.

“She’s so beautiful isn’t she,” I say, running my fingers through her hair.

Louis nods. “I’m going back inside. But you two lovebirds have fun.”

I smile at him and then look back at Andromeda. One day I hope I can give her her first kiss, and we can go on dates and be all cheesy romantic. But right now I’m content to just be here. And I don’t really care how much of a girl that makes me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!  
> To those who are reading this: I love you! The fact that you're reading my story and you've gotten this far makes me happy.  
> Also, I'm really sorry I didn't update this past week. This piece has been giving me issues because I've never actually been drunk... so that was fun to write.  
> Basically if this piece sucks don't kill me. Hopefully I did an okay job on it though.  
> As always comments or kudos are welcome! To the five people that already left them, you made my week, thank you :)


	14. An Interesting Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Andromeda, Louis and Harry hang out, have a good time and Louis finds out Andromeda's secret.

### Chapter 14: An Interesting Conversation 

##### Andromeda

I’m sitting next to Louis, who is splayed out on the floor. Harry left to go do something about 5 minutes ago. I should be asleep but I’m too hyped up on sugar to do that just yet.

“Are you going back home after this Andromeda?” Louis asks me.

I shrug. “Yeah, back to school anyway. I’m going to have to do homework on the plane back in order to not get behind.”

He blanches, “belch, why do you have homework over a break?”

“School stops for no man,” I joke. But in all honesty, it’s true.

“So why do Elise and Alexis call you both Andromeda and Andi?” Louis looks up at me, brushing his formally styled hair to the side.

“When I was younger everyone called me Andi, now people switch on and off depending on how long they’ve known me. My family calls me Andi only. Elise and Alexis go between and most every else uses Andromeda.” I explain. I started going by Andromeda in college.

“Can I call you Andi?” he asks.

I smile, “sure Lou.”

“So do you fancy my best mate?” he turns back to the turned off TV.

I sputter and try to keep my face a normal shade of pink instead of the bright red it wants to become. “What?”

He laughs, “Do you have a crush on Harry?”

“I mean, I like being around him and he’s funny and kind and-“

“Yeah, you do,” Louis cuts me off, grinning.

Nothing can stop me from turning bright red now. “Is it really that obvious?”

He laughs, “No, I’m just very observant. There is more to me than just being sexy and sassy.”

“That sounds like something a girl would say Lou,” I laugh, shoving him in the shoulder.

“Hey,” he tries to look offended but fails. “So who knows?”

“Elise and Alexis. Though I told them while I was drunk, so who knows if they believe me or not,” I reply.

“You normally tell the truth when you’re drunk, so they probably did,” Louis says with the knowledge of someone who has had this happen to them before. “But why didn’t you tell them earlier?”

“That was the first time I’d seen them since I figured out that I liked him. And I kinda thought it was something I should tell them in person you know,” I say, a bit sheepishly. I feel pretty bad that they had to find out about it when I was stone cold drunk.

He nods, “I understand." Then he looks at me sternly, "So Harry being my best mate, I must tell you, if you hurt him I will track you down and murder you.”

“Well, considering he’ll never like me back. I don’t think that’ll be a problem.” I reply, a bit down in the dumps about that fact, but trying to hide it from Louis and sound cheerful.

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Louis winks at me.          

“What aren’t you telling me Lou?” I ask, curious.

He just waggles his eyebrows. And before I can question him more Harry walks in carrying a plastic grocery bag.

“I have food and movies,” he announces.

“Where is Niall, Liam, Zayn, Elise, and Alexis anyway?” Louis asks Harry.

“They went out to look around the town, hit some clubs,” Harry says.

“Aren’t Elise and Alexis under aged though?” Louis says, eyebrows raised.

I snort, “no more than some of you. And besides, the age limit for most of the clubs is 18, you just can’t drink until your 21 here. I don’t think they care either way, as long as they don’t get caught.”

“Why didn’t you want to go?”

“I’ve had enough of parties and alcohol and stuff like that for now.” I shrug. “Plus I like to only break one law per week.”

They both laugh, “A night in is nice though,” Harry says.

“Oh, I didn’t ask,” I say. “Why’d you stay in Lou?”

Harry gets this weird look on his face that I don’t quite understand, but I wave it aside as misunderstanding or curiosity.

“Didn’t feel like it I guess,” he shrugs. “Wanted to spend time with you guys.”

I grin, “We are honored.”

“Yes, the great presence of his Majesty Louis is here,” Harry jokes.

“With Prince Harry and,” he winks at me, “peasant Andromeda.”

Harry slaps his arm, “She’s a princess Lou.”

“Of course Haz,” he laughs, and gives him a look.

Harry blushes slightly and then turns to me, “Do you want chocolate and pretzels?”

“Sure,” I smile. “Thanks.”

We sit and eat in silence for a bit before I speak up again. “So what are you boys up to after this?”

Louis looks up at me, “I’m going to go back to London I think. Just hang around, you know. Nothing big.”

“Sounds like fun,” I say and then turn to Harry, the main reason I asked the question. “And you Harry?”

“He blushes slightly and runs his figures through his hair, “Well I’m thinking of staying here.”

“In New York?”

“Cincinnati actually, and Oxford, if you’d let me.” He clarifies.

I blush profusely. “I don’t own the town but I’d love to have you stay. Nothing much happens there though.”

“You’re there. And that’s enough for me,” he replies, making me blush even more than I was before.

“That’s really, really sweet of you,” I tell him.

Louis clears his throat after a couple of seconds of Harry and I just looking at each other. I jerk up and blink. God I’m turning into one of those romantic comedy girls.

“So, what movie do you want to watch?” Louis asks us.

I shrug, “I don’t care.”

We both look at Harry who does the same thing as me.

Louis flips through the movies and holds one up triumphantly. “ _Grease_ it is then.”

Harry groans, like he’s seen this movie a billion times at Louis’s request, but puts it in and goes to sit back on the couch next to me.

“How long are you going to be staying?” I ask Harry as the opening credits start to roll.

He shrugs. “Probably about a month. I’ll have to be back to help the boys with the new album at that point.”

I nod, “why do you want to stay anyway?”

“I want to spend more time with you. Plus it’s interesting over here.”

I blush slightly, and shake my head. “No it isn’t. Not really. And especially not where I live. It’s pretty normal stuff.”

“Hey, don’t dis your home town,” he says, slapping my arm playfully.

“I can this my home as much as I want. I’ve lived there my whole entire life,” I tell him, and then laugh. “You on the other hand are not allowed to dis my home, so just nod when I complain about it.”

He laughs, “Got it.”

“Glad we cleared that up,” Louis says. “No, shut it, I’m trying to watch.”

We both giggle at him and sit back to watch the movie. Before it’s done I’m curled up in a ball asleep on the couch.

I’m going to miss these boys when I have to go home. And I’m really happy Harry is coming with me, if just for a month.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!  
> I'm a bit high on peeps right now, if that's possible, but you know. Or you don't, either way works.  
> I hope you enjoy this chapter :)  
> Remember kudos and comments always welcome!


	15. Fashion Sense

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Andromeda helps Harry get ready for the VMAs

### Chapter 15: Fashion Sense

##### Andromeda

I knock quietly on the door to Harry’s hotel room about an hour before he has to leave for the VMA’s that night. I was bored, and he was still here so I figured I could go keep him company, or at least he would keep me company.

He opens the door for me with a grin, “Hey. What are you doing here?”

I shrug and step though the door, “I was bored.” Then I actually get a good look at him. “What the hell are you wearing?”

He’s got on his old worn out boots, jeans with a hole in one of the legs. A collared shirt that doesn’t go at all. And an Indiana Jones like fedora.

“It’s my outfit for the VMA’s. I’m going to have Lou and them check it out for me, but I thought it looked good,” he looks slightly offended by my attack on his wardrobe.

I roll my eyes. “Look, I know this isn’t a huge big dressy awards show. But at least show some sense that you want to look nice.”

“I do want to look nice,” he protests.

“Okay. Can I help you with this?” I ask, walking over to his bed.

He nods and points to the suitcase packed with stuff. Obviously he hadn’t known what he was going to wear beforehand, which is a good thing for me.

“So, first off, the hat is mine,” I say, taking the fedora off of his head and putting it on mine. It reminds me of the hat my dad loves to wear, that I always steal and tell him I’m being a hat stand.

“Why?” he pouts playfully.

“One because I want to wear it. And two because you aren’t a cowboy Harry. It’s either the boots or the hat. And I claim the hat,” I explain to him, grinning.

“Okay, oh wise one,” he chuckles and sits down on the bed next to me. “What other advise do you have?”

“No holey jeans. I know they’re in right now but when you dress up and wear them they just give off the vibe that you don’t care about where you’re going. And I know that you do,” I say to him.

He nods, and walks over to his suitcase to pull out a pair of black skinny jeans.

“Now the shirt,” I start but he cuts me off.

“No, the shirt stays.” He says adamantly.

I sigh, “don’t you have another horridly patterned shirt that might go with this better?”

He digs around in his bag and pulls out this heart patterned collared shirt that I immediately hate on sight.

“Nope. No way,” I shake my head.

“What’s wrong with it?” he moans. “I like it.”

“Harry, that kind of pattern is fine on a girl’s skirt, or dress. But on a men’s collared shirt it just looks like a Hawaiian print wannabe.”

“You don’t like it?” he pouts, reminding me of the three year old I used to babysit when I still lived at home.

I sigh. “It’s fine Harry, just maybe not today okay?”

He sighs, again like a three year old, and then pulls out another shirt. This one is light blue and not patterned at all. It looks like one of the starch-collared shirts that business people wear, except this one is softer and doesn’t actually smell like moth-balls, which is always a plus.

“That’ll work nicely,” I say smiling at him.

He goes into the bathroom, leaving me to fold up the clothing we pulled out. When he comes back out he looks much better, although he could unbutton the top button of his shirt.

I stand up and do just that for him, and he smiles down at me.

“Thank you,” he says, and pulls back the hat to place a small kiss on the top of my head.

My blush probably goes from my head all the way to my toes.

We sit on his bed and he turns on the TV to some random reality show that makes absolutely no sense to me. I don’t understand why people would want to watch this stuff, yet it makes money so it must draw an audience.

“Do you want to go with me?” Harry says abruptly, drawing me out of my musings about reality television.

“Hm?” I ask, not quite sure I heard him right.

“Would you like to go to the VMAs with me?” he clarifies. Evidently I did hear him correctly.

I bite my lip, “Um… I don’t know if that would be a good idea.”

"Oh, that’s okay. It was just an idea,” he says, and then looks down at the bed, dejected.

Now Harry Styles pouting, not play pouting but properly pouting, makes him resemble a mixture between a small child and a puppy. You wouldn’t think it would be attractive or make you feel really bad for making him get that look, but it does.

I sigh, “Harry, I’m really honored by your invitation.”

“You don’t have to try and make me feel better,” he mutters, tracing the stitching on the bed covers.

“I’m not. I’m telling you the truth. It’s just I can’t accept it,” I say, trying to be honest with him.

“Why not? What’s holding you back? We can buy you a dress really quickly. I’m sure you’ll look stunning in anything we put you in,” he says, starting to smile at me again.

I blush but shake my head. “Thank you, but that’s not it.”

“Then what is?” he is starting to get annoyed.

I open my mouth and then close it again. He’ll never understand why I can’t go. Jane and Alexis don’t even fully get it and they’ve been my best friends for as long as I can remember.

“Just tell me,” he says. “If you don’t want to spend time with me you just have to say so.”

“No,” I protest, “That’s not it at all.”

“Then what is it,” he half yells, completely exasperated.

“Well,” I mumble. “I don’t do good in crowds, or in the spotlight. And an awards show would be the worst place for me to be with this.”

“What do you mean by don’t do well?” he asks, still suspicious.

“During my freshman homecoming I got shoved into the middle of the circle, well not the middle but the middle edge. Completely surrounded by people who were dancing. I started hyperventilating and had a panic attack right there. Ran outside and refused to come in for a good two hours or so.  It wasn’t pretty,” I explain.

“So you’re claustrophobic?” he sounds slightly more sympathetic to my plight now that I’m trying to explain it to him.

I nod, “along having a very thin skin and somewhat low self esteem. It wouldn’t be pretty.”

“So you’re afraid of crowds and publicity?”

“Pretty much. Though not having a dress is definitely an issue. Plus everyone would talk, and I just don’t belong there.”

“Well,” he sighs. “I agree that everyone will talk, but you belong anywhere you want. Plus you’d be with me.”

“I wish I could do that. Maybe next time, if you give me more time to psych myself up,” I answer.

He laughs lightly, accepting my reasons for not joining him. “I will keep that in mind.”

We sit there for a couple more minutes before another thought occurs to him, “how did you survive our concert then?”

I chuckle, remembering that extremely eventful day. “Well, for one I was freaked out about the crowds. But I’m pretty good at avoiding them. I was terrified of getting trampled by pubescent girls.”

“It’s a legitimate fear at those things,” he laughs.

“I know,” I giggle. “But I made sure to be in the front when Alexis dragged us up front for the twitter contests and tried to always stay away from the big crowds.”

“Does that work then?”

I nod. “Normally having one part of me not completely smushed by bodies, even if I am up against something that comes up to my waist helps. It’s my head that I freak out the most about being trapped.”

“So was that why you were looking for the bathroom while our opening act was on stage?” he asks me, trying to piece this all together.

“Pretty much. I wasn’t having a panic attack or anything. I just needed some air, well, and to use the bathroom. But I didn’t want to do that when I have to stand in a line surrounded by girls who don’t understand personal space and like to push.”

“Understandable,” he nods.

I shrug, “it’s incredibly annoying, but I’ve pretty much naturally avoided most of the situations.”

“What about the spotlight thing?”

“I just am afraid of getting judged I guess. I take it really hard. But the spotlight itself terrifies me. Like I can’t handle that much pressure,” I try to explain something that I don’t quite understand myself.

"So you don’t like everyone staring at you?” he attempts to help me clarify.

“Something like that. There is just this pressure to preform and act the way they want you to. It just scares me,” I finish lamely.

He wraps his arm around my shoulders, “I’ll protect you from the big bad press.”

I laugh, “Thanks Harry.”

“No problem.”

We sit back and watch the TV, but I’m not paying attention to the reality show. No, I’m paying attention to the fact that Harry hasn’t actually removed his arm from my shoulders. I try my best to not move too much so I don’t tip him off to that fact.

He probably just forgot it was there, and once he remembers he’ll move it away. And I definitely don’t want that to happen.

So I sit as still as a statue, pretending to watch the stupid people on the TV mess up their lives. Harry finds some of it hilarious, laughing out loud. It’s a marvelous deep sound that makes me want to simultaneously laugh with him and kiss him. But that of course is not possible. So I just stick with laughing.

I wish I had enough courage to come with him tonight, but it just wouldn’t be a good idea. We already got enough gossip when he and Louis went with me on the plane here, showing up at the VMA’s would just make things worse.

_Knock, knock, knock._

Harry gets up to answer the door, Louis and Zayn bounding through just after he turns the handle.

“You ready for this?” Zayn asks Harry.

He nods, grinning. “Is it time to go?”

“Wait,” Louis says. “I would just like to mark this moment. Harry is actually later than I am.”

I crack up at that, as Louis is known for being late to things. All three of them look at me, Harry with a smile and Louis and Zayn with looks of confused surprise.

“Hey Andi,” Louis says, waving at me.

I wave back, “Hi Lou. Time for you guys to go already?”

He nods. “What are you doing in here?”

“At the moment watching TV,” I shrug. “But I was just bored because Jane and Alexis are still sleeping off whatever you guys did yesterday. So I came over here to keep Harry company before you guys left.”

“Ah,” Louis says, waggling his eyebrows at me, “I see.”

I blush.

Harry walks over to me and gives me a giant bear hug. Effectively distracting me from Louis. Being hugged by your crush will do that to you.

“Have fun tonight,” I say to the boys when Harry lets go. Well, it’s said to the boys, but it’s directed at Harry.

“Watch us on the telly,” Louis says.

“You can stay in here if you want while we’re gone,” Harry offers but I shake my head.

“Thanks, but I don’t want Jane and Alexis waking up and thinking I was taken by a serial killer on the way to your room,” I laugh slightly.

“They know you’re here then.” Zayn says.

“I left them a note just in case they woke up, but I said I’d be back by the time the show started. I also promised to wake them up for it.”

“Gotcha,” Zayn nods and heads out of the room. Followed by Louis who squeezes my shoulder and winks at me.

“I’m dragging you to the next one of these,” Harry says.

I chuckle, “okay.”

“Have fun, be safe, don’t do anything stupid!” I call after him as he walks out of the door.

“Thanks mum,” he laughs and sticks out his tongue.

I giggle and stick mine right back out at him.

He grins at me and looks like he’s going to say something else, but Louis drags him bodily out of the doorframe.

Now I have to go make sure my friends haven’t died from hangovers, or something weird like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all!  
> I love you people, like seriously, if you're reading my story, then I love you. ;)  
> Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates that! And to those who don't, hey, at least the candy aisle is fully stocked with chocolate and peeps.  
> Oh, by the way, Andromeda's fashion opinions (and opinions about reality TV) are totally mine and if you disagree with them then I am sorry if I offended you. But we all have to admit... Harry's fashion choices are a bit questionable at times. ;)  
> Remember to comment and give kudos!


	16. Hugs and Kisses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry takes Andromeda somewhere romantic and cheesy.

### Chapter 16: Hugs and Kisses

##### Andromeda

"I'm going out," my roommate Eileen says to me. "You gonna be okay tonight?"

I look up at her from my psychology textbook, "I'll be fine. Harry said he was going to stop by for dinner."

"Aw, that's adorable," Eileen croons.

I shake my head at her, even though I insist he doesn't like me, she still thinks he does. "He probably just wants to free load off our food."

"Right, of course," she rolls her eyes at me, and then waggles her eyebrows. "Have fun."

"You too," I say, looking back down at my book. Can everyone but me do that eyebrow-wiggling thing?

About thirty minutes later there is a knock on my dorm room door.

"Hey stranger," I say, opening the door to Harry's smiling face. He's dressed really nice, white t-shirt, navy blue blazer. Without giving me much time to figure out why he looks that nice he pulls me into a tight hug.

"I missed you," he mutters into my hair

I roll my eyes and pull back slightly, "I saw you two days ago silly, but I missed you too. Now what's with the nice clothes?"

He smiles slyly at me, the way that lets every know that he's planning something, "We're doing something that I wanted to look nice for. You should get dressed up too."

I quirk my eyebrow at him, "What are we doing?"

"You'll see," he waggles his eyebrows and plops down on my dorm bed. "Now, go and get ready."

I walk over to my closet and pull it open, looking at all of my clothes, and then turn back to Harry, "how dressy? Like on a scale of nice jeans to prom."

He smiles, "more toward the nice jeans side, like what you wore when I first met you."

I try not to read too much into the fact that he remembers what I wore to that concert, when I'm not entirely sure I remember exactly. But I still get the gist. I pull out my pair of skinny jeans, a nice white v-neck t-shirt and my nicest brown sweater.

Then I turn back to Harry, "I'll be back in a second; I just have to get changed."

"Don't take to long." He calls after me so I stick my tongue out at him before I close the door.

It only takes me a couple minutes to change my clothes in the bathroom, so soon I'm back in my dorm room hunting down my gray ballet flats.

"Do I need make-up for this?" I ask him once I put my shoes on.

He looks at me confused, "you don't have make-up on?"

I shake my head, " no, is that a bad thing?"

"Not at all," he quickly shakes his head. "You look beautiful without, but I've just never met a girl who doesn't have make up on when a boy sees her."

I shrug and pull my hairbrush out of my nightstand drawer, "Jane doesn't much either, but she did when you saw here. I just don't like wearing it that much, it's too much hassle and I like the way I look anyway."

He mutters something that sounds like, "You should. You're beautiful."

"So," I tie the hair band around my braid, "will you at least give me the gist of where we're going?"

"Nope," he stands up and grabs my hand and drags me out of the room so I just have time to grab my phone and nothing else.

Though I keep up with him, he doesn't let go of my hand; almost as if he is afraid I'm going to run away.

We walk all the way to the edge of Oxford, and down the road that I take to get back home, until we get to the park.

Harry refuses to give me any clues as to where we're going or what we're doing, but the closer we get, the more nervous he becomes, and the tighter he holds onto my hand.

"I'm not going to run away you know," I tell him when we get into the park, squeezing his hand.

He looks at me and smiles, “I know. I’m just nervous about this.”

“What’s there to be nervous about?” I ask, cocking my head.

He smiles shyly, which isn’t something he normally does, “You’ll see.”

Hand in hand we walk over the bridge and into the park, looking for all the world like some sort of couple. I wish, but I’m not sure if I can get my hopes up.

The picnic shelter is all decked out for some sort of party, well, more like an anniversary given all the red. I start to walk away from it, but Harry gently drags me back and we enter the picnic shelter.

All the tables are pushed against the little fireplace in the middle and there are candles on all of the tables. Roses are in vases and scattered on the tables, so it looks like a romance movie gone wild. It’s adorable, in an aw-that’s-so-sweet-but-really-cheesy way.

Harry turns to me, looking even more nervous that before, “So, remember how you told me that you’ve never been kissed?”

I nod, not sure where he’s going with this.

“Well,” he wrings his hands and then looks back up at me and takes a step closer, “It’s a bit selfish of me, but I didn’t want anyone else to kiss you.”

“And you do?” I ask, somewhere between shocked and dumbfounded.

“Oh, I’m going about this all wrong.” He says, and takes my hands in his. “Andromeda. I like you.”

My eyes widen, “You- you like me?”

 He laughs, “Yes, I thought it was pretty obvious.”

“Not to me,” I say. “I’m not very good at identifying things like this when it comes to me.”

“I see,” he smiles slyly.

I manage to stutter out, “I-I like you too.”

Not saying anything, he pulls me closer and puts one hand on my face. Then he leans in and softly presses his lips to mine.

It’s not like how I imagined it at all, not that I mind. Instead of the fireworks I expected, a slow pleasant heat spreads from where our lips touch. Slowly, as if I’m just waking up from a dream I wrap my free hand around his neck, cupping the back of his head. Part of me is still scared to do the one thing that I’ve wanted to do since I started to like him, which is lace my fingers into his curly hair, so I don’t. At least not yet.

He pulls back infinitesimally and whispers in admission, “I’ve wanted to do that for a while down.” Then he looks around at the picnic shelter, “Is it okay? I wanted your first kiss to be perfect, but I wasn’t sure what you wanted. Is it too cheesy?”

 God, he looks so adorable when he’s flustered. Slowly, I swallow to get my throat working again and say, “It’s perfect.”

“Are you sure? It’s not too much is it?”

I smile at him, quite overjoyed, but still in shock. “Shut up.” And I stand up on my tiptoes and kiss him.

He doesn’t need another invitation, and soon lets go of my hand to wrap his arm around my waist, as if he know that if he doesn’t I’ll probably fall to the floor because my legs will give in. So my arms encircle his neck to hold myself up, and hold him to me. He kisses me over and over again, never letting me go long enough to catch my breath.

Gradually I weave my fingers into his hair, attempting to kiss him back. I don’t think I’m doing very well, but he continues to kiss me until I can’t help but respond in the way he wants me to, pulling him closer and gasping in pleasure.

His mouth moves from mine to kiss my cheek, and then down to my neck. It feels like butterfly kisses, except the butterflies have somehow set my skin on fire. Basically it feels amazing. And then he hits the perfect spot, and the fireworks I expected erupt. My hands instinctively bunch in his hair and I can feel him smile against my neck before kissing that spot over and over again.

Then he moves on before pulling up to kiss my mouth again. “Did you really mean it was perfect?” he whispers before kissing me lightly again.

I smile at him, “Harry, I would have been happy if you kissed me when I was covered in mud and paint, just because it was you. But the fact that you went to all this trouble for me.” I pause, and try not to get choked up, “I think it’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

“You’re worth it,” he says, kissing me on the forehead. “Now, do you want to go to dinner, or just stay out here for a while?”

I look at him smiling, “I thought you would have dinner out here already?”

He blushes slightly, “No, I didn’t want it to get spoiled, or raccoons to eat it, and I didn’t bring it with us, so.”

“Finally thought ahead for once did you now?” I say teasingly, ruffling his hair.

“Hey I think ahead!” he feigns outrage.

“Of course you do,” I smile and lean up to kiss him lightly.

He pulls me in for a deeper kiss, moving his mouth against mine. When we pull back his eyes alight on something on my neck.

He chuckles, “looks like you’re going to have some explaining to do.”

“What?” I blink at him, taking my hands out of his hair to pull my phone out of my pocket. I hold it up, and use the awesome mirror like protector screen I have to see what he’s talking about. It takes me about thirty seconds but my eyes finally find the round purple mark on my neck, that looks a bit like a bruise. Then I turn and glare at him.

He shrugs; at least he’s decent enough to look a bit embarrassed about it. “Hey, you liked it.”

“You gave me a hickey!” I try to shout at him, but am unable to keep a straight face, so I bury it in his shirt. “God. You gave me a hickey.”

He rubs his hands up and down my back, “I’m sure it won’t be the last time.”

That makes me blush even more than I had when I buried my face in his t-shirt, “That doesn’t really help.”

“Just wear a scarf for a few days,” he suggests.

I look up at him, “I don’t wear scarves. They feel like they are trying to choke me.”

“Well, that is a problem,” he says, tilting his head. And then he lets go of me, and my body protests at the loss of the connection. When he comes back he hands me a sweatshirt, one of his if I’m not mistaken.

“Here, I put it in here in case you got cold. It should cover it up. Not that I mind it,” he winks at me, and I hit him playfully on the arm. “What? I’m the first person to kiss you, and that mark proves that you liked it. I’m allowed to be happy about that.”

I pull his sweatshirt on over my head, “I guess when you put it that way…” and I kiss him again.

About five minutes later he pulls away and kisses the top of my forehead. “Ready to go to dinner?”

Kissing him lightly I smile, “Sure, you have something in mind?”

“You’ll see,” he says, and unwraps his arms from around me, only to take my hand and lead me out of the park.

I’m on top of the world right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!  
> I can't believe it's May already. Only a month left of school. Plus AP testing next week and the week after, so everyone who is in that good luck!  
> Anyway... finally, a kiss. Sorry I move so slow with this stuff. 16 chapters in and the first kiss just happened... but I'm not really sorry at the same time.  
> Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed it!  
> Remember to comment or give kudos. They make my day :)


	17. Press Conference

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry at a press conference

### Chapter 17: Press Conference 

##### Harry

Management organized a press conference for us about the upcoming album, but the rest of us know that it’s going to be a lot of questions about our personal lives.

_Hey_ I text Andromeda. It’s been two weeks, and I still can’t believe that she’s my girlfriend.

_Hello yourself_ she quickly replies.

_Are you in between classes?_

_Yeah, have an hour and a half lecture for my 19 th century lit class. But don’t worry I’ll watch the end of your press conference when I get out._

I chuckle, _Sounds like fun._

_Eh,_ she replies. _We’re reading Sense and Sensibility which I read summer of junior year in high school, but the discussion is interesting._

_I’m sure little miss smarty pants._ I roll my eyes and laugh. It’s honestly a bit intimidating how smart she is, but she’s so sweet about it. Not like anyone could miss it, but she doesn’t flaunt it either.

_Hahaha. So are you guys just hanging out before the press conference?_

_Yeah. We’re all texting at this point, but then we’ll have to get set up for the press conference. It’s in two hours._

_Gotcha. I should be able to catch it then._

We talk about various things, her literature class, and what we’re going to talk about during the press conference. Then I get to the topic I wanted to talk to her about.

_So, they’re going to ask about our relationships you know,_ I tell her.

She texts back almost immediately, _I figured. Are you going to tell them about us?_

I nod, and then remember she can’t see me. _If you’re okay with that._

_Of course, why wouldn’t I be?_

She has a good point, as usual. _I wasn’t sure… There’s the press to worry about._

_I know. But they’re bound to find out eventually._

_True. But do you want them to find out today, or should we wait._

_Well, I’d rather have them find out on your terms then theirs cause they will find out eventually._

I smile. _You’re smart._

_Thanks. I might be AWOL for a bit. My teacher thinks I’m texting._

_You are. Bad girl,_ I text back cheekily.

_Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know._ I can see her rolling her eyes.

_Have fun in class. I’ll text you when the press conference is over._

_Can’t wait ;)_ is the reply I get.

I laugh and reply, _Pins and Needles._ It’s become a thing for us, but not one I quite know where it started. It just is. And it’s really sweet we have a thing.

I sit around for a while watching telly, and about an hour later, thirty minutes before we have the press conference Zayn comes into the room I’m in.

“Andromeda have to be at class?” Zayn asks me, sitting down on the couch.

I nod. “Yeah, she thinks her teacher almost caught her texting so she had to stop.”

“That sucks. What’s she taking?”

“Literature I believe.”

Zayn perks up and I chuckle. He’s such a nerd sometimes, even worse than Liam. “What’s she reading?”

“ _Sense and Sensibility_ ,” I reply.

“That one is good. I’m surprised she hasn’t read it,” he says.

“She has. But it’s required.” I look to Zayn and then back at the telly.

We sit in companionable silence until the rest of the boys come in and then we all fool around until they call us for make up and such.

Pretty soon we’re all ready and ushered into a bigger room with a table in the back. The chairs will soon be filled with reporters but right now there are only a few people sitting down.

They perk up when we walk in but don’t approach us. It’s common etiquate for them not to.

I sit down in front of the mic, in between Niall and Louis. Niall is furiously texting someone, probably Jane, as usual.

Louis leans over to me, “are you going public?”

I nod, looking out at the crowd of reporters and fans.

“Have you told her that?” he asks. Him and Andromeda have actually become really close friends ever since New York. They probably exchanged numbers then, and have been texting.

“We talked about it. I warned her about the press, but she said it was bound to come out sometime, so I might as well have control over when it does,” I explain.

He chuckles, “That sounds like Andi.”

Liam leans over to Niall, “phone away, we’re about to start.”

Niall scowls at him but does as he’s told.

The questions start soon after, asking about the album, which we’re all quite proud of. Niall, Liam, and Louis mainly take those, as they helped write many of the songs.

Then they move onto our personal lives and girlfriends. Zayn, Liam and Louis all gush about their girlfriends. They really are completely adorable when they talk about it. The reporters tease them a bit and them move onto me and Niall; they still think both of us are single.

“So, Harry,” One reporter says to me. “We haven’t heard of a girl lately. Surely there must be someone, you’re never without a girl for long.”

I wince. I hate my womanizer look, partly it’s the media’s and management’s fault, but I wasn’t exactly careful about it anyway. Plus I can’t help it if I’m a romantic.

The reporter doesn’t seem to notice my wince and plows on, “So, anyone you fancy or a secret girlfriend?”

Louis chuckles and elbows me in the ribs.

I nod, “not exactly secret, but yeah.”

Another reporter, a girl, coos, “Do tell more?”

“Her name’s Andromeda, and I met her at one of or concerts,” I start, but get interrupted again.

“Is she a fan?”

I shrug, “Sorta, but not an obsessive one, which is nice. But anyway I started talking to her and about three months later we started dating.”

“Was that fast or slow?” a different reporter asks.

“Didn’t really think about it. But I don’t think it matters,” I reply.

The first reporter looks up from his notebook and grins at me, “So tell us how you met her. I’m sure that’s an interesting story.”

I clear my throat. It is but it’s also quite embarrassing for both of us.

Louis has not such concerns as he leans into the mic, “Oh it is. Andromeda hit him in the head with the door and he was so intrigued by the girl who would manage and have to the gall to do that that he made us pick her and her friends for the backstage winners.”

I blush and lay my head on the table. “Thanks Lou,” I mutter.

He pats my back, “Anytime.”

When I raise my head back up they ask, “How do the rest of the boys feel about this?”

I look at my band mates.

Niall takes this one, “Yeah, she’s awesome. Really sweet, and perfect for Harry.”

“Aside from the fact that her best friend is fit,” Liam mutters, winking at him.

The reporters jump on this, “Oh! Who is the best friend?”

Niall blushes, “her name is Jane.”

“Do you fancy her?” They ask, but he just ducks his head and blushes even harder. Which is an answer in itself.

The boys heckle him but I look down at the mic, not really paying attention. Andromeda, and Jane for that matter, is going to be bombarded by the press and fans. I can’t let that happen. It isn’t fair for her, and besides I don’t know how far her claustrophobia and fear of the spotlight goes. I really don’t want to be responsible for a panic attack.

“Harry,” Louis hits me in the arm. Evidently they’ve been waiting for me to respond to some question. I look at him. “What’s up?” he tries to sound playful, but he looks concerned, probably due to whatever look I have on my face in regards to Andromeda’s privacy, but as usual he covers it with jocularity.

“I’m worried about the press and fans hounding Andromeda,” I whisper in his ear, avoiding the mics.

He cocks his head and whispers back, “I think Andi can hold her own. But if you’re worried tell them to leave her alone.”

I nod and look back to the reporters, “I have a favour to ask of you.”

They smile at me and one reporter says, “of course, shoot.”

“Leave Andromeda and Jane alone. They really are normal girls with normal lives. I mean they are both amazingly weird but neither of them really want all the scrutiny and hype that can be accompanied by being associated with us. Just please show them some respect and leave them alone,” I say, breathing out. It’s good to get that off my chest. Now at least in theory I can’t blame myself if they do hound them.

The reporters look reluctant to agree, and a bit taken aback to be honest. I might have been a tad more forceful than usual. But it is their job to get information from and about people and then publish it. Plus many of the reporters here are from gossip magazines.

Louis leans into the mic, “This is very important to Harry. Just agree.” He winks at me. I smile in thanks.

They all nod, or most of them do anyway. And then they go back to asking us questions.

My phone vibrates on the table and I try to inconspicuously grab it. I probably fail, but who cares.

Andromeda has texted me, _Thanks for asking them to leave Jane and me alone. I’m sure Jane wouldn’t have minded in the beginning but I would have._

I grin, _Anytime, I have to protect my girlfriend from the big bad press._

_Oh Harry save me!_ She responds, and I can picture her giggling as she makes some playful looking damsel in distress face.

_I’ll rescue you princess!_

_I thought Lou established that I was a peasant._

I glare at Louis and then text back. _Louis is stupid, you’re a princess._

Liam taps me on the shoulder behind Niall. He holds out his hand and reluctantly give him my phone. I’ll just have to text her later.

I don’t know what the reporters are asking, but they aren’t paying attention to me anymore. They probably lost interest in me when I zoned out from texting Andromeda. But now I have to deal with reporters and their nosy questions, the reporters who want to know what just happened, and why it did.

Great.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so... I don't know exactly how press conferences work. Well these kind anyway. I know how the ones golf professionals do work. Cause I'm a giant nerd and I watch the golf channel with my father sometimes. Don't judge.  
> But anyway, I apologize if this isn't correct. And I especially apologize about my characterization of journalists of gossip magazines... so if you are one and you're nothing like this, then I'm sorry. It's for a story so it's not very accurate.   
> I hope you enjoyed this! I thought it was adorable :)   
> Happy Mother's Day by the way!   
> Remember to comment or give kudos!


	18. Overkill, but Welcome Presents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry sends Andromeda a giant present (or presents) for her birthday, and Skypes her.

### Chapter 18: Overkill, but Welcome Presents

##### Andromeda

I roll over groggily struggling to get out of my sleep haze.

“Wake up sleeping head!” Elaine says, hitting me on the head with a pillow.

Opening my eyes I give her the best death glare I can, which surprisingly is pretty good.

“It’s your birthday, and you’re grumpy. That’s unnatural,” she says before the door to my dorm room explodes.

Jane, Alexis, Matt and David are all standing there grinning.

“Hey sis,” Matt says.

I sit up, “ What are you guys doing here?”

Jane shrugs, “We didn’t have classes, so we figured we’d come down a day early and see you. Your brother and David met us while we were trying to get up here.”

“How’d they let you two up?” I ask Matt and David. My dorm was the only single sex dorm left on campus, so they shouldn’t have let them up. Not that I’m complaining, but the RA is actually pretty strict about it.

David shrugs, “Once we told them we were gay they didn’t really care.”

Matt giggles in a way that only my little brother can, “But we had to prove it.”

“Not that we minded,” David laughs and elbows Matt, winking.

I roll my eyes, “Well okay. Are you guys all here for my birthday then?” They nod, and I laugh, “ Thanks guys.”

Today I turn twenty, no longer a teenager but still not legally allowed to drink. Sucky system we have here in the states.

Jane ruffles my hair, “No problem dear.”

“Don’t you have a class?” Elaine asks from her bed. She’s trying to type a paper for Language and Comp that’s due later today.

I roll out of bed and grab some relatively nice clothes. Though I’m going home for the weekend I’m packing after my class.

After getting ready in the bathroom I go back to my room to grab my poetry for my creative writing class.

“We’ll be waiting right here,” David says from my bed where he’s wrapped around Matt, who looks like he’s half asleep already. They are honestly the cutest couple on the planet hands down.

“I’m sure you will be,” I chuckle, and step out the door.

I trudge to class in the cold. It’s not cold enough to snow, but it is enough to be miserable. Sometimes I really hate Ohio weather. Quickly I run into the building.

My mom gave me her nice Irish cloak for my Christmas present last year and I’ve worn it as my winder coat ever sense. It makes a nice blanket right now in my classroom, because the maintenance hasn’t realized that it’s winter yet, so it’s freezing inside as usual.

“You’re smart,” Melissa, my tablemate, remarks about it.

I grin at her and start to play with my papers.

“Today we’re going to read our poems in class,” my teachers says when the bell rings. “If you don’t have them done then you can leave now and take a zero for the day.”       

No one gets up but I see a few kids in the back writing furiously.

“Happy Birthday by the way,” Melissa says. “Is your boyfriend coming to visit you?”

I shake my head. Harry couldn’t because he has something with the band this weekend; I think it’s a gig for a charity event.

“Your imaginary boyfriend,” Christopher chuckles behind me. Ever since I wrote about meeting him for our non-fiction piece, leaving out the fact that he’s famous, half of the class teases me about him. I refused to show them pictures because I didn’t want the attention that would come with them knowing.

I roll my eyes at him, his teasing not even warranting an actual response.

“So, who wants to go first?” the teacher says, and the torture begins. I wrote my poem about Harry, of course, because my poetry only worked if I wrote it about depressing or romantic stuff. But I didn’t actually use his name so hopefully I won’t be teased. Evidently my plan worked because no one made remarks about it.

When class is finished I bolt back to my dorm to try and avoid the cold. Jane, Alexis and Elaine are all talking while Matt and David are still asleep (or pretending to be) in my bed. They’re all tangled up in each other looking absolutely adorable.

“Hey,” Elaine says. “Lauren wants you to go downstairs to get something.” Lauren is our RA, the nice one, not the strict one.

“Okay,” I say. “Jane, Alexis, you want to come?”

Alexis shakes her head, her and Elaine have seemingly hit it off. Jane stands up though, “I’ll come.”

“I wonder what Lauren wants.” I muse as we walk back downstairs.

Jane shrugs, “probably to wish you a happy birthday.”

Lauren hears this, as she is standing outside the office that we just approached with four large boxes. “That was one reason,” she laughs and gestures to the boxes, “but this was the other.”

I cock my head. “I didn’t order anything.”             

“No, but a Mr. Styles did,” she says grinning and hands me a letter that must have come with the boxes.

I rip it open while Jane and Lauren try to look over my shoulder. I hide it from them and grin at Harry’s curly handwriting.

 

Andromeda,

I am sill so sorry I can’t be there for your birthday. So this is both my apology and my birthday present for you. You said that you liked the actual kind of these instead of the electronic version. So enjoy.

Happy birthday darling

                  Yours always,

Harry

P.S. Don’t even think about returning this. I won’t let you.

 

I look back at the boxes. The only thing I can think of that I like in hard copy rather than electronic is books, and these can’t all be books. Can it?

“Well, what does it say?” Jane asks.

“He’s sorry he can’t be here and this is my birthday present,” I mumble, stunned.

Lauren whistles, “He’s loaded. Your boyfriend I presume?”

I nod, and Jane snatches the paper out of my hand. “Aw man, he didn’t even say love,” she whines when she reads the note.

“We haven’t said that in person yet Jane,” I say before walking over to the boxes.

Lauren hands me a pair of scissors. “He must, if he went to all this trouble and money just for a birthday gift.”

I shake my head, not fully able to believe that he does love me like that. “Not necessarily. He is loaded as you say.”

“What does he do?” Lauren asks, curious.

“He’s a musician,” I reply before cutting the box tape. Inside are books, just like I had theorized, about 20 or 30 books per box, though I assume some of them have less because the books are bigger.

Jane and Lauren are both speechless, and frankly I am too.

“A musician?” Lauren asks, incredulous.

I laugh and close up the box, “Yup. He’s kinda famous.”

“Kinda?” Jane laughs. “Stop trying to be modest. Her boyfriend’s Harry Styles.”

Lauren’s mouth drops open, “Seriously? That one kid from One Direction?” I’m surprised she didn’t put it together before, after all his last name was on the delivery slip.

I nod, “It’s been in the gossip news so I’m surprised less people know then I thought would.”

“It’s just in the fandom dear,” Jane says, and pats my shoulder.

“How are we getting these to the room?” I ask, eyeing the boxes of books. They probably weigh a small ton, or at least enough that I wouldn’t be able to carry them.

Lauren looks around and grabs a dolly, “here. Use this and the elevator.”

We manage to pile the boxes onto the dolly with much sweat and toil, as well as cursing, though that was mainly from Jane. Then Lauren goes back to her room.

When Jane and I reach the dorm Matt and David look at us, having woken up from their little nap.

“What’s in the boxes?” Alexis asks.

I flop onto my bed, “Birthday present from Harry.”

“She got about 100 books,” Jane says sitting down next to me.

“I think it’s less than that dear,” I mumble and look at the bookshelf Elaine and I had shoved into the closet at the beginning of the year because we didn’t need it. It seems we do now.

“It’s a crap ton of books,” Jane amends.

I giggle, “I’m going to call him.” I grab my computer off the desk and plop it onto my lap, turning the thing on and waiting for it to load.

“Do you want us to unpack the books?” Elaine asks.

David smirks, “I’m certainly not. I want food.”

“We’ll be back,” Alexis says, hugging me.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Jane jokes, laughing slightly, and I stick my tongue out at her.

Elaine says, “we’ll bring you back something,” and then they’re all out the door and it’s quiet again.

Harry is online when I open up Skype, so I just call him. He answers on the third ring.

“Hi Sweetheart,” he says when he picks up. His hair is all curly crazy and he has a normal band shirt on, but I can’t quite read the band name. I could probably look at him all day just listening to him talk and I’d be happy.

“Hi Harry. I got the books.” I grin at him.

He chuckles, “do you like them?”

I nod, “They’re amazing. I haven’t gotten to look at them because I wanted to call you right away. They’re wonderful but-”

“Oh no, what’s the but,” he says, like he knows what my ‘but’ is going to be and he just doesn’t want me to say it.

“I can’t accept this,” I mutter, and when he looks at me I hurry on. “It’s just so expensive. I mean shipping them alone is a ton of money and then you have all the books and it’s just…” I trail off at the look Harry is giving me.

“Andromeda,” he says sternly but kindly at the same time. “It’s a birthday present. I’m rich. I want to spoil you.”

“Are you sure?” I ask sheepishly.

He nods, “positive.”

“Okay.”

“So you’ll accept?” He asks, a bit happier now, but wanting verbal confirmation.

“Yeah, I will,” I say.

“Yay!” He claps his hands like a five-year-old, a giant grin on his face.

I laugh. “I’m dating a little kid.”

“Heeyyy,” he says in this funny offended drawl that is by far the most adorable thing I’ve ever heard.

“You are,” I giggle.

He glares at my playfully, and then rolls his eyes, not at me, but at someone behind the computer screen on his end. “Lads get in here!” he shouts, and then my screen is filled by five overactive boys (men technically, but they act like boys).

Louis winks at me, “Happy Birthday Andi!”

I grin at him, “Thanks Lou.”

“We wanted to sing happy birthday to you,” Zayn says smiling, and then they tap the desk and begin to sing the most wonderful version of Happy Birthday I’ve had sung to me.

“That was beautiful guys,” I say when they’re done.

Harry blushes, “thanks.”

“Andi, we got you a muffin,” Matt calls from outside the door, signaling the incoming invasion of my dorm room.

When they open it and come in Niall immediately singles Jane out, as my computer screen is facing the door. “Hi Jane,” he says, blushing slightly.

Jane blushes and waves, “Hi Ni.” They are both sickeningly cute, even if they aren’t officially dating yet. Louis and I both roll our eyes. There’s a reason we’ve become really good friends over the past weeks, and this is one of them.

“Do you want to introduce us to your friends?” David asks me, and Matt nods in earnest. They both really want to meet the rest of the band, even though they already got to see Harry and Louis when they picked me up for New York.

I laugh, “Okay, everyone try to fit in the screen.” They all jam into the space that my camera picks up.

“So boys,” I address the One Direction lads. “This is my baby brother Matt.” I point to the said individual, who glares at me.

“I’m 18,” he protests. “Legally an adult I’ll have you know.”

David laughs and kisses him on the cheek, “Unfortunately you’ll always be the youngest here in spirit, even if you are a bit older than me.”

“And this idiot is David,” I interject.

“How long have you two been dating?” Liam asks.

Matt slings his arm around David’s shoulders, almost taking Alexis’ eye out in the process. “Two years, ish.”

David nods and grins, “Somewhere around there. We don’t really do anniversaries, considering we went on like three dates without Matt even realizing it.”

“You never clarified,” Matt protests.

Before they get into it I hold up my hands, “boys, boys. You can fight about it later.” Then I turn to Elaine. “And this is my roommate, the lovely Elaine Rogers.”

She blushes and waves shyly, “hi.”

“Hallo Elaine,” Harry grins at her.

This causes her to calm down and be a lot less flustered, “How are you doing Harry?”

“Splendid,” He says. “I never thanked you for helping me with the picnic by the way.”

She shrugs and laughs, “No biggie. Someone needed to give her a push, and you needed help with it anyway.”

I look at them both questioningly.

“She helped me set up the picnic where I kissed you,” Harry clarifies.

Louis laughs, “You’ll have to be more specific, you guys kiss quite a bit nowadays.”

We both glare at him, though I’m blushing while doing it. “Shut up Lou,” I say.

“Yes ma’am!” he says and salutes.

Matt turns to me, “Mom and Dad want to know when you’ll be home.”

“I still have to pack,” I mumble.

“Go pack dear,” Jane says. “We’ll entertain them.”

Zayn laughs, “We’re going to be off. It was nice seeing you guys.” And with that he stands, Liam following suit,

“Happy Birthday Andromeda. Nice seeing you again Alexis, Jane,” Liam waves.

Alexis blushes and stutters out a goodbye, which make us all grin.

“I’m going to pack then,” I say and look at Harry. “Thank you so much for the books.”

“You’re welcome darling. Happy Birthday,” he blows me a kiss and winks at me, causing everyone else to moan about PDA, even though that totally didn't count as PDA.

I grin at him and then walk over to my dresser to throw some clothes into an overnight bag. My parents got rid of all the clothes that I left at home when I came to college, so I have to bring stuff whenever I stay.

“Yeah, that should last her maybe a year, if she reads slowly,” Jane says behind me to the computer.

“Hey!” I yell.

“You know it’s true Andi,” she shoots back.

I roll my eyes and grumble about how it isn’t and I’m not that fast of a reader. They’re all talking together, though Matt and David had gone to the car a couple of minutes ago.

Honestly, even if Harry can’t be here in person this is probably the best birthday ever. All my friends are in the same space, even though some of them are thousands of miles away. Technology really is wonderful.

“Andi, get over here and say goodbye to your boyfriend,” Alexis orders me.

I walk over and stick my head in the camera area, “Are you leaving?”

Harry nods, “Yeah, got to get to a night gig thing.”

“Have fun,” I smile.

“I will, wish I could be with you for your birthday though,” he replies, looking wishful.

“Me too. But thank you for the books. And for letting me Skype you.”

“As if I wouldn’t see you on your birthday,” he scoffs, and then grins, dimples out, “you’re welcome though. Happy Birthday Andromeda.”

I grin and blush.

“I’ll see you soon, and call you after the gig,” he says.

“Can’t wait,” I reply grinning, waiting for the next part that I know will come.

“Pins and Needles,” he says, smiling back.

“Bye guys, bye Niall,” Jane says. We all echo the sentiment and I wave before ending the call.

“You two are too adorable,” Jane smiles and elbows me, wiggling her eyebrows. I blush and duck my head again.

“Come on, let’s go,” Matt says, knowing Jane’s teasing could go on for a while. He’s been around her long enough to know that.

I grab my overnight bag and start to walk out of the room with my friends.

Elaine looks up at me from her perch on her bed, “I’ll see you Sunday night. Have a good birthday.”

“See you,” I grin at her before leaving.

“Good birthday so far?” Matt asks me.

I nod. “Best birthday ever.”

                 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I haven't really updated in a while. I don't really have any excuses, so I'm sorry. Don't kill me.  
> For everyone who gave this kudos or bookmarked it thank you :)  
> I feel like I should apologize for the grammar mistakes that probably have been through the whole work... I do all my own editing.  
> Hope everyone is having a great summer so far!  
> Leave comments please! Though kudos make me smile a lot too, so either one is good ;)


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